An increasing number of materials engineers in Australia and overseas are involved in the development, processing, and application of materials used in many areas of biomedical engineering including orthopaedics, dental and maxilliofacial implants, artificial vascular materials, controlled drug delivery, prosthetics and orthotics, and device housings. In many areas of medical technology, a concurrent study of materials and biomedical engineering form a logical and useful training. The objectives of the dual degree program will prepare materials engineers to work in these areas of biomedical technology like many of their overseas counterparts.

The five-year dual degree program consisting of a Bachelor of Engineering (in Process Metallurgy, Physical Metallurgy, Ceramic Engineering or Materials Science) and a Master of Biomedical Engineering (BE/MBiomedE) is specifically designed to cater for students wishing to pursue a career in biomedical engineering through the technical base of materials science and engineering. The BE/MBiomedE dual degree is 240 units of credit (UOC) (5 years full-time) by allowing 18 UOC of graduate level MBiomedE courses to substitute for elective courses in the BE and one undergraduate BE elective to substitute for a MBiomedE elective. This overlap arrangement is only available to students who complete the BE/MBiomedE program. Students who discontinue the BE/MBiomedE program to complete the BE program only will have to complete the normal 192 UOC BE program but may be given credit for some of the BIOM courses completed. All students are required to have gained at least 12 weeks of approved industrial experience before graduation and to have submitted satisfactory reports on such work. Industrial experience is usually obtained during a long vacation at the end of years 2 and 3.

Students are expected to perform at a credit average (65%) or better in their first three years to be permitted to continue with the Masters part of the program. Students who do not satisfy this requirement can revert to the Bachelor of Engineering program.

The Institution of Engineers, Australia recognises the Bachelor of Engineering components of the BE/MBiomedE programs as meeting the examination requirements for admission to graduate and corporate membership. Furthermore, examination requirements are met for the membership of the Institution's College of Biomedical Engineering. The degree is accorded substantial or complete recognition by overseas engineering institutions.

Please refer to the section above or contact the School of Materials Science & Engineering for information regarding the Program Objectives and Learning Outcomes.

The Bachelor of Engineering component of the program requires students to undertake study in one of the following four study streams:

In addition, a number of electives can be chosen from other streams. The first year of study is common to all streams. Specialisation occurs in the later years of study, though some courses are still common to all streams. Only the courses that are common to every stream are set out below. A student's stream would determine the composition of the rest of each stage of their program - i.e. their Professional Electives. Students can change their selection of study streams up to the end of Session 1 of the third year.


For information on the Streams available within this Program, please follow the Stream links at the bottom of this Program entry.

Stage 1 of all streams

PLUS 18 unit of credits (UoC) of Year 1 electives *


Stage 1 Elective List


Required elective:

Recommended electives:

*Note
A full list of Year 1 electives can be found here.

Stage 2

PLUS

OR

PLUS

For Professional Electives for Stage 3 & 4 please click on the links below:

Students in this program must also satisfy the General Education requirements.
For further information, please refer to "General Education" in the Table of Contents (see left-hand side of page).

Please refer to Program Structure and contact the School of Materials Science & Engineering for the Academic Requirements relating to this program.

For information regarding fees for UNSW programs, please refer to the following website:  https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/fees/FeesMainPage.html

Academic Stream

The professional and technical electives that define the Physical Metallurgy, Process Metallurgy, Materials Engineering and Ceramic Engineering academic streams in the BE/MBiomedE program are the same as those specified for the corresponding academic streams in BE program 3135.