School-leavers take note - the range of engineering options available at the University of Galway has expanded hugely. And all new entrants from 1998 will have work experience programmes as part of their degree studies. The college now has seven options - common-entry engineering, civil, electronic, industrial and information systems, mechanical (with a specialisation in biomedical engineering possible), electronic and computer, and management engineering with a language.

The new common-entry programme is aimed at students who want to pursue a career in engineering but are unsure which specialisation would best suit them. At the end of first year, they choose between the various programmes.

Why go into engineering? In reply, Professor Jim Browne, dean of the faculty, asks if students want to use the technology or to create it? Engineering is interesting, he says. It's also well paid - and jobs are plentiful. Typical annual salaries start at £15,000; £20,000 with two year's experience and £25,000 with five year's experience.

Dr Peter McHugh, lecturer in mechanical engineering explains that prospective students can enter the course through the common-entry stream or the direct-entry stream. He says that first year in both programmes is comparable so students coming through common-entry will not be disadvantaged in second year.

"The benefit of direct-entry is that, if you know what you want, you're guaranteed a place," says McHugh. "You don't have to compete after first year. You may not get the course of your choice through the common-entry option."

The number of women students is increasing. This year there are six women and 34 men in first year. McHugh notes that the perception of mechanical engineering is changing. "You don't put on a boiler suit and take up a spanner. You usually sit behind a desk in an office. It's computer-based as well as productbased. The engineer is involved in the design and selecting the parts. It's the technician who does the hands-on work."

The first year of the four-year course in mechanical engineering is, in many respects, a catch-up year, he explains, so everybody is equipped to the same level in physics, chemistry, maths and applied maths. There is also an introduction to computers and engineering. In second year, students begin to study areas such as the strength of materials, gears, electronics, fluids, water power . . . third year is a relatively short year, finishing at Easter with the industrial placement.

Mechanical engineering is the only engineering degree to include an industrial placement at present but all new entrants to engineering (beginning 1998) will do a placement. Mark Bruzzi, now a PhD student in the department, says that his placement in Dornier, an aircraft and aerospace manufacturer in Germany, involved a project on materials.

"I had a little German and I knew a few months in advance where I was going so I took a course in the college. It was quite difficult at the start of the placement because of the amount of technical German involved." The placement afforded him an opportunity to find the area he was interested in and his PhD is in the area of materials.

In fourth year, students specialise to an extent and there is a lot more computing involved.

For the past three or four years, with plentiful employment, 80 per cent of graduates have gone directly into employment with the remainder opting for post-graduate studies. In the past, the percentage going on to further studies would have been much higher, says McHugh.