International Students

Welcome to the School of Metallurgy and Materials. Our School offers undergraduate courses in Materials Science and Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Materials Top 10 Complete University Guide

Top 10 in The Times Good University Guide rankings

Materials Science at Birmingham top 100 world-wide QS Ranking

The School of Metallurgy and Materials at Birmingham is a major research centre with world class facilities and academics, providing an outstanding learning environment for our students. This is reflected in our Top-100 QS World Subject Ranking 2019 and Top-10 ranking in multiple 2020 UK league tables. We offer undergraduate programmes in Materials Science and Engineering, Metallurgy, Aerospace Engineering (shared with the School of Engineering) and Nuclear Science and Engineering (shared with the School of Physics and Astronomy). Our academics are world leading in a broad range of Materials Science and Engineering topics, including advanced materials used in the Aerospace and Nuclear industries.

Dr Alessandro Mottura
Admissions Tutor

“Our School welcomes many UG international students from countries across the world including, China, Indonesia, Bahrain and many more. Below we have provided some useful information for 2020 applicants, including what to expect during your first year, and some first-hand experiences from our current students. If you have any further questions, myself and the team look forward to hearing from you.”

Contact details:
Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 5235
Email addresses:
Aerospace Engineering: aerospace-admissions@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Materials Science and Engineering: materials-admissions@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Nuclear Engineering: nuclear-admissions@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Your first year at Birmingham

The modules and activities during your first year as a student in the School of Metallurgy and Materials largely depends on the programme you select. Whether you choose Materials Science and Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or Nuclear Science and Engineering, the first year is carefully tailored to provide the students with the most relevant fundamental knowledge for their end degree. Regardless of your chosen discipline, here are a few of the highlights you can expect from your first year:

An active student society: we have student societies dedicated to your discipline. These organise both social and professional events for the students on the programme. Events range from career events (usually happening in the fall) to talks, quiz nights, projects and social evenings.
The experience of living in student accommodation: during their first year students normally live in student accommodation provided by the University. There is a broad range of accommodation facilities that fit everyones needs and desires. This will allow you to make friends across disciplines, not just within your programme. In later years, students enjoy living in private accommodation in Selly Oak, a vibrant student community just south of the main campus.
Hands-on activities: students across all of our discipline spend time in laboratories, doing experiments and refining their laboratory skills. Experiments range from tensile testing to measure the strength of different materials, to x-ray diffraction to probe the inner structure of materials. Aerospace Engineering students have access to flight simulators to develop their flying skills.
You will start to develop a broad range of skills that will make you more employable once you graduate. You will learn programming, writing and presentation skills and build up your confidence in these areas.

Hear from our International Students

One of the best ways to find out what life is really like as an international student is to hear from them! Here, they talk about their experiences and give real insight into student-life at Birmingham. To see full student profiles as well as student videos and much more, please see our International Students Information page.

Rumaanah Hoosen
Aerospace Engineering with Foundation Year

“The course content is challenging but very well conveyed by lecturers. I enjoy that lecturers and academics engage with students. Students also have access to a wealth of resources such as labs, equipment, literature and much more.”

See Rumaanah's profile.

Yijie Zhuo
BEng Materials Science and Engineering

“The best things about studying at the University of Birmingham are that the course has a focus on practical use, which can help find a specific direction of career path. Also our personal tutor gives us a meet-up tutorial once a week, and helps with a lot, including problems we have in our studies and future career guidance.”

See Yijie's full profile.

Metallurgy and Materials News

Tweets by @@metmat_unibham

To hear about the latest School news and any upcoming events please follow us on Twitter @metmat_unibham, @eps_unibham and Instagram @myepslife. You can also visit our News and Events pages and the University of Birmingham Weibo and WeChat pages.

Meet us in your Country
Members of staff from the University regularly travel overseas to meet with students interested in studying with us. Check our travel calendar for details of upcoming visits to your country.

Fees and Scholarships

The School of Metallurgy and Materials is proud to attract some of the world’s brightest students. We offer some fantastic scholarship opportunities to high achieving international students.

Fee status
Information on fee status and tuition fees can be found on our international fees pages. Tuition fees are also displayed on our individual programme pages.

Immigration and visas

Students who are nationals of a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland generally require a visa to study in the UK. See our visa and immigration pages for more information about getting a visa to study in the UK.

Application document verification

If your place is conditional upon providing evidence of your academic qualifications, you can verify your documents in variety of ways. See our document verification pages for further information.

Parents and Carers

We’re sure that your parents will have many questions about the University campus, student support and security. Our parents and carers webpages will provide many of the answers.

Offer-holder Checklist

You will receive updates about the application process and relevant deadlines via email, but you can use this handy checklist to keep track of progress.

Key Dates

Key Dates
September 2019	UCAS applications open
15 January 2020	Deadline for applications - First places*
May 2020	UCAS decision deadline
30 June 2020	UCAS applications close**
1 July 2020	UCAS clearing opens for international students
31 July 2020	Accommodation application deadline (for Accommodation Guarantee scheme)
19-20 September 2020	Arrivals Weekend
21-27 September 2020	Semester One begins with Welcome Week
28 September 2020	Semester One teaching begins

*If you apply after this date then we cannot guarantee places, therefore we encourage you to apply by 15 January 2020.

** If you apply after 30 June 2020, your application is automatically entered into Clearing.

Accommodation

University accommodation:
For information about our University accommodation, including our Accommodation Guarantee schemes, 360° tours, rates and more, please visit www.birmingham.ac.uk/accommodation

Applying for accommodation:
Applying for accommodation is simple and available online.

Presessional accommodation:
If you are a Presessional English Language student, information about your accommodation options will be available here soon.

Private accommodation:
If you’re not looking for University accommodation, the University and Guild of Students’ Rent Right scheme can give you the best housing advice.

Contact accommodation:
All accommodation queries will be need to be directed to the Living team at:
Email: living@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)121 414 8000