Firstly a confession, I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering, I enjoyed it, and use what I learned on it almost every day. A second confession, I did it between the ages of 19 and 21, full time, with no financial commitments beyond keeping running a clapped out old Ford Capri. After that, I went and did other things - like work, get a mortgage, buy a couple of small aeroplanes, and am currently doing a part time PhD in airworthiness.
Thing is, I can do this part time PhD, and if I wanted there are opportunities to do other part time / distance learning Masters and Doctorates (or as we all know pretty much any piloting qualification).
Yet so far as I can find out, in Britain there are no opportunities to do a first degree in my own core subject of Aerospace Engineering - or any of the closely allied technical subjects (avionics, maritime design, etc.) So if, lets say you are a LAME/technician wanting to move into aircraft design or senior technical management, an ATPL wanting to move into the same or perhaps the more technical aspects of test flying, a keen PPL who want to design their own aeroplane, or just somebody who would enjoy the huge technical challenge. there is no opportunity to gain the baseline qualification that I (and many others) rely upon without giving up work for 3 or 4 years - frankly impossible for most people, I certainly couldn't do it now.
I think there should be this opportunity - there certainly is in the US, just look at
the degrees offered by Embry Riddle for example . It's no secret that in the past I've made efforts to persuade several universities to offer such a degree, with frankly absolutely no success. Being a glutton for punishment I'm contemplating rolling my sleeves up and trying again.
Let's be straight, an Aero-Eng degree is bloody hard work, and requires monstrous application. It's also not going to come free, anybody doing it would need to find probably in the order of £12,000 (that's what
an Open University Engineering degree costs, and Embry-Riddle's charges are similar). Equally however it opens up a lot of opportunities for people who have the qualification (or it has for me anyway).
So, my question to the house is, how many people out there would be interested, if the opportunity were there, in doing a distance learning BEng or MEng first degree in some variation in Aerospace Engineering? For that matter, what specialist subjects (obviously the core of an aero degree is fixed, but there are many non-core options) should be available?
?
G