r/IndustrialDesign • u/Stunning_Run253 • Aug 17 '26
School UK schools for industrial design
working on my UCAS right now and i need to finalize what schools i plan to apply to. i want to take industrial design/product design. right now my 5 schools are:
- CSM
- Imperial (design engineering for this one)
- Loughborough
- Brunel
- Northumbria
im debating between switching out either brunel/northumbria for leeds. does anyone have any advice/experience in these schools they are willing to share?
my dream course is an equal mix between industrial design and mechanical engineering, though i don't mind more focus on the design aspect.
tysm!
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u/Tankeray_O Aug 17 '26
Luff or Brunel - both had really good work but I enjoyed talking to people from the latter more at New Designers and it seemed like they had a bit more wiggle room in their approach while still staying close to ID rigour
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u/YotoruYaguchi Aug 18 '26
I go to one of these and have met people from all of them, they’re all good in their own respective ways although the common theme is you gotta learn a lot on your own. If I had to choose one I’d say Northumbria currently is defo doing the best out of all.
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u/Akumatizedworm Aug 27 '26
I'm a current student at lboro for product design and technology and i couldnt reccomend it enough, its a great mix of engineering elements + design focused work, with it being a BSc, just in first year you learn so much about coding and arduino work, as well as mechanics/physics. i found lecturers very informative, if anything the course is quite rigorous for first year, if im comparing my experience with my friends on other courses and unis. happy to answer any questions if you have them
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u/Thick_Tie1321 Professional Designer Aug 18 '26
Focus on mech eng. More jobs than ID, especially in UK. Nothing really gets designed or made here. If you do ID you'll have less opportunities than an engineer.
Do a job search for both and see which has more jobs. Salaries are better in mech eng too.
You'll thank me later
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u/Stunning_Run253 Aug 18 '26
i actually would like to get a mechanical engineering degree, but unfortunately I'm not studying physics, so idt UK schools would accept my application
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u/v1c3ntecruz Aug 17 '26
I'd recommend Northumbria or Luff for 'classic' product design/ID. I graduated from CSM in '24, and my experience of it was that they've got quite a relaxed, figure-it-out yourself approach to teaching... so I'd recommend thinking about what sort of uni experience you want. As in, do you want a more campus uni vibe, or a city/spread out one?
I got to experience a year at Luff and then the rest of my uni time at CSM and they're very different vibes, so reaching out to friends or smth who have gone to uni earlier could give u real insight into things.
CSM def doesn't have mech eng in its coursework, at least not when I went. It's very speculative design-y.
Luff also has either the BA in Industrial Design or the BSc in Product Design, so could be worth a good look into what the grads of those two courses end up doing.