Does anyone know which university in UK is the best to study petroleum engineering or geosciences?

imperial college, uni of manchester, robert gordon uni.

so u're going for master program? what bout sponsor?

Imperial College has a good track record of its Masters in petroleum engineering, but not too sure about other unis, though Herriot-Watt has quite a good reputation amongst o&g companies for Pet Engineering also.

Regarding Geoscience, other than Imperial, there's Manchester Uni, Edinburgh, Royal Holloway London, even Aberdeen has good petroleum related courses. Most other unis (even the likes of Oxbridge are not tailored towards petroleum too much, more like environmental or non-petroleum related disciplines).

With Geosciences, you have to ask which of the 2 (geophysics / Geology) you're more into. If you're more into Geophysics, then I can tell you that both Imperial College and Leeds University (thru its Msc Exploration Geophysics) are almost head to head in terms of quality, prestige and research / publications. Geology wise, it's definitely between Imperial (quite a lot of fundamental text book writers from Imperial like Richard C Selley, Howard Johnson, Phillip Allen, Lonergan, etc), Edinburgh and Manchester. Manchester Uni Msc Petroleum Geoscience is also a recommended course, though they are very strong in geology, lacking a good number of geophysics based lecturers.

A word of advice, bearing the name Imperial College, it really TAKES an enormous amount of hard work to even pass for masters from Imperial. Seeing that most of the lecturers are almost tops in their field (especially geology), you'll find it to be very difficult to impress them (examination answers, assignments and everything). No chance to study on the spot. You've got to be prepared even before you come there to study! In fact, the same goes to most other petroleum courses offered by other univerities in the UK. So be prepared early. The advantage is that, O&g companies flock in like birds to get people from Imperial. Ask yourself if you can cope with hard pressure and you think you're intelligent enough. In the end, an msc with distinction from uni like leeds or manchester still looks better than lower graded masters from imperial. Think about your own capability. But! If you're looking for / applying for sponsor, of course Imperial will make you stand more chance of securing that dreaded scholarship.

Another word of advice, brush up your understanding of Sequence Stratigraphy (books and tutorials abundant on the web). Also try to familiarize yourself with seismic processing / seismic imaging. It's a killer subject, especially to geology educated student. Formation Evaluation subject (involved with wireline logging and petrophysical analysis) is also important, especially during dissertaion project. Try to practise a lot with Exploration and production based software, like processing s/w, interpretation s/w and stuff, there's quite a lot of them that are open source based. You need to be familiar with them cause most of the assignments are derived using software. So need to get the hang of it.

Also, UK universities are not the only good ones offering respectable petroleum based course. Heck, other better unis like American CSM (colorado School of Mines), Stanford, Texas at Austin, also Calgary Uni from Canada, and over all this, Delft Technology University in Netherlands, all commands respect from prospective O&G employers. You might want to look into them, cause in terms of geophysical (and some of them geology too) based researches undertaken / in progress, these unis mentioned just now has better research output, and closer aligned to industry's needs.

Also, I think this is in the wrong thread.

This post has been edited by KayDknighT: Aug 18 2009, 02:46 AM

what about heriot-watt? heard it's not as intensive as imperial but is more hands-on & practical...

what about masters in petroleum management? does it require an engineering background or a non-technical will just do?