Daniel MacPherson (20) from Falkirk completed his HND Mechanical Engineering at Forth Valley College and is now delighted to be seamlessly continuing onto university to finish a Masters degree.
The Heriot-Watt University partnership degree route has benefitted Daniel immensely and he would thoroughly recommend this pathway to others.
He said: “I found the partnership route to be an attractive solution for advancing my further education within the mechanical engineering field of study. The thing that stood out to myself was the capability it offers to seamlessly continue you on to further education on a higher level, allowing for opportunities to those who did not over achieve in high school to make it into university.
“At Forth Valley College, the lecturers were very clear in their explanations of the contents of the course and carried the classes out in an engaging and interesting manner. The equipment at the College, to my knowledge, was of good quality and maintenance, there was very often a cupboard full of laptops in classes which were not IT based. This enabled a freer environment for research and recordings to be made throughout class time.
“My experience at the College has benefited me as it has given me a good foundation of the knowledge required for entering into a mechanical engineering discipline, as well as for advancing to further education in that field.
“The College through the partnership route with Heriot-Watt University has allowed me to easily progress from the HND level, to further levels within the education system.
“I would recommend the College and the course as the lecturers are very good at making the subject interesting, whilst also ensuring that the course work has been absorbed by the students previous to their taking the exams. They did this through the use of tutorials, which helps the confidence of the student as they may then ready themselves.
“In reflection I found the thermofluid section of the course to be very interesting. I must also add that the cheese cake in the cafeteria was marvelous and that I wish I knew their suppliers details!
“I also liked the freedom that could be found in the graded unit section of the second year. It allowed me to consider and work within areas of design which I found to be of interest, also allowing me to get a better grasp on both remotely controlled technologies, and concepts within the course itself.”