The Faculty of Science and the UNSW Business School offer a dual degree program which qualifies students for two degrees after five and a half years of successful study: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Materials Science and Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce.

The program is intended for potential engineers in the fields of Physical Metallurgy, Materials Engineering, Ceramic Engineering or Process Metallurgy who wish to become more aware of economic and social aspects of the engineering profession, and skilled in technical management. It is expected that those taking this program would progress to entrepreneurial and managerial roles.

A full range of commerce and engineering careers is still open to those who qualify with both components of the dual degree. Most engineers progress to technical management roles, and these programs strengthen the commerce background in addition to providing the engineering skills.

Increasingly, engineers also find employment in the commercial sector, and the dual programs provide a good background for those entering banking, consultancy, etc. Students wishing to enter the purely commercial sector will benefit from technical and numerate strengths obtained as part of the Engineering program.

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

The first two years of all streams are identical and the third and fourth years contain a number of common courses. Students can change their selection among the study streams up to the end of Semester 1 of Stage 3.

Each study stream provides a range of specialised electives. In addition, a limited number of electives can be chosen from other streams.

The Bachelor of Commerce component of the program requires students to undertake study that meet requirements for the award when undertaken in dual degree mode. Further details are available in the Bachelor of Commerce (3502) Handbook entry.

The following information provides an outline of the preferred program structure:

Recommended elective:

24 UOC of Commerce courses

^NOTE: MATS4009 is an 18 UOC project with 9 UOC taken in semester 1 and 9 UOC taken in semester 2. Whereas MATS4010 is a 24UOC project with 12 UOC taken in semester 1 and 12 UOC taken in semester 2.

*For details of available Professional Electives please click on the links below:

Students in dual degree programs are generally not required to take General Education courses. However, if a student takes out a single degree only, the usual single degree General Education requirements must be met (ie. 12 UOC outside of the awarding Faculty).

For further information, please refer to the General Education Guidelines.

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)

Honours will be awarded in the following classes:

NOTE: First attempt counts. Honours WAM to be calculated to one decimal place.

Bachelor of Commerce (Honours)

On completion of the requirements for the dual degree a student may be qualified to enrol in an Honours program in the Bachelor of Commerce and to qualify for the award of the BCom with Honours after successfully completing an additional year of study (48 UOC) as specified in the rules of the UNSW Business School. See 4501 Commerce (Honours) for further information.

Requirements for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and the Bachelor of Commerce degrees

To qualify for the Bachelor of Engineering(Honours) and the Bachelor of Commerce a student must successfully complete courses that total at least 264 UOC and include:
    (a) in the Faculty of Science:
a minimum of 168 UOC comprised of courses described in the requirements for program 3131 BE(Hons) in Materials Science and Engineering; and
    (b) in the UNSW Business School:
at least 96 units of credit comprising of 42 UOC prescribed level I compulsory and flexible core courses; a major of at least 48 units of credit in an approved disciplinary stream and additional UNSW Business School courses to make up the full 96 UOC. For full details of the rules for the Bachelor of Commerce, please see the 3502 Bachelor of Commerce page; and
    (c) at least 60 days of approved Industrial Training (required for the award of the BE(Hons) degree).
    (d) Students enrolled in the BE(Hons)/BCom dual degree are not required to undertake either Quantitative Analysis for Business and Economics (ECON1202) or Business and Economic Statistics (ECON 1203) as part of their Commerce component. Completion of the maths courses in the Engineering component of the dual degree are equivalent to these two courses.

Administration of the programs

    (i)A student's general program will be administered by the Faculty of Science with delegated administration to the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
    (ii) Students' programs will be administered by the UNSW Business School for the BCom component of the program and by the Faculty of Science for the BE (Hons) part of the program.
    (iii) The UNSW Business School and the Faculty of Science shall jointly exercise authority in any matter concerning the dual programs not otherwise covered by these rules.

Programs of Study

The programs of study which may be taken for the degrees of Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce are governed by the normal rules for award of the BE (Hons) and BCom in the Faculty of Science and the UNSW Business School respectively which specify:
    (i) units of credit;
    (ii) corequisites, prerequisites, assumed knowledge;
    (iii) the structure of the degree program; and
    (iv) any special conditions.

Enrolment

    (i) An application to enrol as a candidate for the dual degree program shall be made through UAC, or on the prescribed form for international students which shall be lodged with the Registrar at least two calendar months before the commencement of the session in which enrolment is to begin.
    (ii) The candidate shall be enrolled as either a full-time or part-time student.

Award of the degrees

    (i) A student who completes the requirements for both the BE(Hons) and BCom degrees shall receive at graduation a separate testamur for each of the degrees;
    (ii) A student may apply to discontinue the BE(Hons)BCom degree programs and elect to complete either the BE(Hons) or BCom degree in accordance with the rules governing the award of that degree. Following discontinuation of one of the programs (BE(Hons) or BCom), courses that count towards that program will not in general count toward the remaining single degree unless they meet the single degree requirements in their own right.

For information regarding fees for UNSW programs, please refer to the following website:  UNSW Fee Website.

All students are required to have gained at least 12 weeks of approved industrial training before graduation and to have submitted satisfactory reports on such work. The training should be concurrent with enrolment and is usually undertaken during the summer recesses at the end of Stages 2 and 3. Further information is available on the Materials Science and Engineering website.

The Institution of Engineers, Australia recognises the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in any of the 4 undergraduate streams as meeting the examination requirements for admission to graduate and corporate membership. Similarly, substantial or complete recognition is accorded to the degree by overseas engineering institutions.

The Faculty of Science has some rules that relate to all students enrolled in programs offered by the Faculty in relation to recognition for prior learning, general education, course exclusions, study load, and cross-institutional study. All students should read the information contained on the Faculty General Rules and Requirements page in this Handbook.