Quango,
a few 'flavours' of Aerospace related degree you might consider are:
1. Aeronautical (Aircraft design: performance, concepts, aerodynamics, structures, flight mechanics, handling, flying qualities, flight control system design, powerplants)
2. Avionics (Nav, mission systems, RADAR, sensors, displays etc.)
3. Systems Engineering (Customer and system/sub-system requirements , system architecture & management, product life cycle issues, complex engineering project management + some detailed eng. options)
4. Spacecadets (orbital mechanics, satellites, rocketery, payload, missions, light weight structures and dynamics etc).
5. Manufacturing (metallic, plastic, composite materials, manufacturing processes, quality, plant design)
6. Mechanical (a bit of everything, strong on CAD/structures/component and subsystem design and integration, power services, and design solutions - achieving mass/volume constraints)
7. Electronics (as avionics)
8. Human Factors (pyschology, workload, job design, erogonomics, etc)
9. Maths, science degrees are often recruited too, especially for R&T though often witha PhD or postgrad. specialist degree.
10. Computer sciences/Software Engineering (all areas, but real-time computing quite a speciality) .... a way to add cost and complexity to an aircraft without adding weight - doh ! In major short supply, as this is in demand across the economy)
Depends what area you fancy starting off in...most degrees include some intros to all of the above + accredited courses include contract and employment law, languages, accountancy, marketing, etc.
Whatever you choose, you can usually change specialism later in your career... often by doing an taught postgrad. masters degree or PhD or even intensive short courses... need update skills through career obviously).
As to Unis you might also consider:
Imperial
City
Queen Mary Westfield
all in London.
Bristol
Bath
which benefit from ties with Airbus @ Filton (external lectures support to final year design projects, industrial placements)
Bath actually lectures some engineering courses in the foreign language (gulp!) designed for European mobility!
Loughborough
Manchester
Salford
Sheffield
Liverpool
which benefit from ties with BAE SYSTEMS (external lectures support to final year design projects, industrial placements)
Southampton is well respected for its helicopter know-how and has had good links with Westland helicopters).
Shrivenham is great for people interested in the armed forces.
Belfast + Shorts aircraft company (Bombardier biz jets)
But all the big UK aerospace companies (primes: BAE SYSTEMS, Airbus, Thales and second tier suppliers R-R, Smiths, MessierDowty) get involved with the UK Unis, especially for R&T with the profs!).
Trouble is, without doing the degree course, you won't know if you really like it until you're in, but usually they all have enough interesting electives to keep you interested!
I hope you succeed in whatever you chose to do... definitely visit the Uni to check out the staff and facilities and town/area + make sure you can take part in lots of fun hobbies/past-times - there are loads of extra-curricula activities and sports which develop people and managment skills and are downright fun
Hope this helps. Good luck.
P.S.: Appologies for any Uni missed off + errors, I ain't perfick!
