In the ancient, picturesque town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, sits one of the world’s more unusual higher education campuses. Integrated into Dyson’s UK technology campus, the lecture spaces, laboratories and offices of The Dyson Institute are situated alongside some of industry’s most advanced engineering labs, while the Dyson Village features futuristic, award-winning accommodation pods. It’s a fitting campus for undergraduates on a thoroughly modern engineering course.
The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology welcomed its first students in 2017, to deliver James Dyson’s ambition to set up an engineering programme to develop work-ready engineers. Students on the four-year BEng (Hons) engineering degree apprenticeship work alongside world-class Dyson engineers and study with top academics, all while receiving a competitive salary and paying no tuition fees.
Niamh Turney is in her final year at The Dyson Institute. “What Dyson is doing is completely different,” she says. “Once I was offered a place it was a no-brainer [to accept]”.
Places are not so easy to come by, however. Since its launch, The Dyson Institute has been one of the most oversubscribed engineering degree courses in the UK, with about 14 applications for every place available. More than 2,000 registrations of interest have already been received for next year’s cohort.
Turney says this is no surprise. “The culture is just really exciting,” she says. “Your ideas are valued no matter who you are, and you gain so much from being able to apply what you learn in lectures to the workplace. You’re exposed to these amazing, technical minds on a daily basis.”
Students such as Turney work on real-life projects alongside experts in Dyson’s global engineering, research and technology teams. “Dyson undergraduate engineers work in a global team, with the best labs. They work alongside the most ingenious practising engineers and scientists, solving big problems,” says Sir James Dyson, founder and chairman of Dyson. “They are free to experiment and learn through failure.”
Their work has a real world impact, too. For example, in 2019, Dyson Institute undergraduates helped develop backpacks that use sensors to monitor and record air-quality data. These help Dyson scientists to better understand air quality around the world – from how the bushfire season in Australia affects the day-to-day air pollution in Sydney, to the toxicity levels in Delhi homes and the levels of traffic pollution in Paris.
Undergraduate engineers are challenged to work on such projects, but are given a lot of support, too. “I had my whole team around me to help in case I got stuck,” says Daksh Brijwani, who is in his first year of the programme. Students like Brijwani are also given a mentor to guide them. “The amount of knowledge [my mentor] has about Dyson products and engineering in general is quite amazing,” he says.
Accommodation pods; students work on real-life projects in world class labs; (above) final year student Niamh Turney
On top of work, two days a week are dedicated to academic study, with a mixture of lectures, tutorials, labs and independent research. In the first two years, students gain a foundation of knowledge in mechanical engineering, electronics and electrical engineering, electromechanical engineering and software engineering. They are then given the opportunity to specialise in one of these areas.
Class sizes are small – each cohort has approximately 40 undergraduates – so students can work closely with lecturers and academics. “We are proud of our programme,” says Masoud Jabbari, a senior lecturer. “We have relatively small cohorts, which gives us the opportunity to be more engaged with the students.”
Senior lecturer Masoud Jabbari
When students are tired from their challenging programme, they can relax in the Dyson Village’s luxury accommodation and recreation spaces. Each cross-laminated timber pod has views across the Wiltshire landscape and is equipped with a shower room, study space and the latest Dyson technology. “The pods are pretty great,” says Brijwani. “From the outside they look like shipping containers, but the inside is fully made out of wood. Then you’ve got two chalkboards to work on. They’re really comfortable, and a good place to work.”
World Architecture News agrees; it awarded the Dyson Village, which also features a cinema, cafe, bar and gym, first prize in the residential category of its 2019 awards. The complex was also shortlisted for five other awards, including the 2020 Architect’s Journal Building of the Year and the 2019 Dezeen Award.
Each accommodation pod is lined with wood and has two chalkboards to work on
Joe Croan, former head chef at Marco Pierre White’s Michelin-starred restaurant L’Escargot, in Soho, takes care of the food – and it shows. “Whenever I’ve eaten in the cafe it’s been absolutely amazing,” says Brijwani.
If students graduate with a 2:1 or higher, they will be able to take a graduate engineering job at Dyson if they wish, but there is no obligation to do so. Dyson’s growing engineering work across the world, including in Singapore, opens up the possibility for engineers with a wanderlust to work abroad.
Whichever path graduates choose to follow, they will have had a unique world-class education and training that will set them up for an exciting career in engineering. “The Dyson Institute is forging a very exciting new path in higher education,” says Mary Curnock Cook, chair of council at Dyson. “There is simply no other degree like this.”
James Dyson agrees: “I’m confident we are educating the best engineers in the world. I hope they choose to stay at Dyson for many years to come.”
