Enter OTP
If you’re curious about how we can create greener energy, design sustainable products, or develop smarter healthcare solutions, the Chemical Engineering BEng/MEng at Leeds is a great fit. The course mixes strong science and engineering fundamentals with future-focused areas like digital design, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing, so you graduate with both the technical depth and the innovation skills employers love.
Curriculum Structure
Year 1
In your first year, you’ll get to grips with the core principles that every chemical engineer needs—like thermodynamics, mass and energy balances, and transport phenomena. Alongside this, you’ll develop your problem-solving and teamwork skills in modules such as Professional Engineering Skills, and even step into virtual reality environments that simulate real chemical plants, giving you a taste of how your knowledge applies in practice.
Year 2
The second year is where you really start connecting theory with industry practice. In Chemical Engineering Practice and Process Simulation, you’ll use pilot-scale equipment and industry-standard software to run experiments and model processes. You’ll also explore process safety and environmental engineering, reaction engineering, and separation processes, building the toolkit needed to design safe, efficient, and sustainable systems. A group project ties it all together, helping you work like a professional engineer.
Year 3
By third year, it’s time to specialise and apply everything you’ve learned. You’ll choose a pathway—whether that’s Digital Manufacturing, Energy, Materials, or Nuclear Engineering—and dive into modules like Sustainability in Process Engineering or Energy Technologies. The highlight is the Process Plant Design Project, where you and your team design a full-scale chemical plant, balancing technical design, economics, safety, and sustainability, just like in industry.
Focus areas (in a string): chemical engineering fundamentals, process design, thermodynamics, reaction engineering, process safety, simulation, sustainability, specialised pathways in digital manufacturing/energy/materials/nuclear.
Learning outcomes (in a string): graduates gain strong technical knowledge, hands-on experience with simulation and pilot-scale equipment, design skills for safe and sustainable processes, and specialist expertise aligned to their chosen pathway.
Professional alignment (accreditation): accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), this degree fully meets the academic requirements for Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.
Reputation (employability rankings): Leeds is ranked Top 10 in the UK for Chemical Engineering (Guardian 2025) and Top 100 worldwide (QS 2025). Plus, Leeds students are among the top 5 most targeted by leading employers in the UK (High Fliers Research, 2024).
Year 4
The frontier topics that are taught in year 4 feed is directly providing you with the necessary training to influence and make an impact in the chemical engineering sector. You’ll continue on your chosen pathway and learn more about those topics that most interest you, as well as carry out an innovative capstone project.
Compulsory modules
Research and Innovation Project – 45 credits
You’ll undertake an independent innovation project tailored to your area of interest. Working in an academic research group, you’ll access UK-leading research facilities and use the latest experimental and/or computational techniques to address the research hypothesis.
Chemical Products Design and Development – 15 credits
Learn the methods of chemical product design with a focus on product formulation to design innovative chemical products for the fast-moving-consumer-goods sector.
Multi-scale Modelling and Simulation – 30 credits
Explore the use of a variety of digital tools for the advanced design of chemical products and processes including the use of digital twins to study and predict the performance of complex unit operations.
Pathways
During Year 4, you'll continue to study the pathway you chose in Year 3.
Digital Manufacturing and Processes
Energy Engineering
Materials Engineering
Nuclear Engineering
At Leeds, you won’t just be sitting in lectures—you’ll be learning like a real chemical engineer from day one. Whether it’s stepping into a virtual chemical plant, running experiments in the lab, or working on design projects with your classmates, the course is designed to give you the kind of practical experience employers value.
Here’s a taste of what that looks like:
Hands-on lab work – you’ll get to run real unit operations like distillation columns, reactors, and heat exchangers in our dedicated Process Engineering teaching labs, bringing textbook concepts to life.
Virtual reality & simulations – experience the scale and complexity of chemical plants in VR and practise using the same simulation software professionals rely on.
Cutting-edge digital tools – from digital twins to design of experiments, you’ll use advanced engineering software to test, design, and improve chemical processes.
Discovery labs – as you progress through the course, you’ll move from guided lab sessions to planning and running your own experiments, analysing results, and presenting your findings.
Team & individual projects – in the early years you’ll work on group design projects, and by your final year (if you choose the MEng), you’ll run your own independent research project with expert academic support.
Learning ethics in practice – unique to Leeds, you’ll also explore engineering ethics—like responsibility, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility—taught alongside lab work by experts from the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre.
Graduating from Leeds with a Chemical Engineering BEng/MEng opens doors to a wide range of exciting careers. Many of our students step into roles such as Process Engineer, Energy Systems Developer, Sustainability Consultant, or R&D Specialist within just a year or two of leaving university. You’ll have both the technical expertise and the professional confidence to make an impact in industries that really matter.
And here’s why Leeds sets you up for success:
Specialist employability support – our Faculty Employability Team is here to help you secure summer internships, year-long placements, and graduate roles, as well as running careers fairs, CV workshops, and networking events with employers.
Strong outcomes and salaries – 100% of our BEng Chemical Engineering graduates are in work or further study within 15 months. Typical starting salaries average £31,000, rising to around £34,500 after 3 years and £42,000 after 5 years.
Real industry experience – from process simulation to pilot-scale equipment, your course mirrors professional practice so you’re industry-ready the day you graduate.
Accreditation with impact – our degree is fully accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), giving you a clear route towards becoming a Chartered Engineer (CEng)—a status that carries global recognition.
A degree employers notice – Leeds is ranked Top 10 in the UK for Chemical Engineering (Guardian 2025) and Top 100 worldwide (QS 2025). Plus, our graduates are among the top 5 most targeted by leading UK employers (High Fliers 2024).
A-level: AAA including Mathematics and either Physics or Chemistry.IB - 15 points at higher level to include 6 points in Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation or 5 points in Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches and either Physics or Chemistry.IELTS - 6.0 overall, with no less than 5.5 in each section.TOEFL - 80 overall and no less than 17 in listening, 18 in reading, 20 in speaking and 19 in writingCBSE - 75-90% one AP at grade 4 or 5 alongside your High School Diploma and two Honors classesa minimum 3.0 GPA including two Honors classes at grades A+ to B, plus at least one other qualification from the list that follows.Process EngineerEnergy and Sustainability ConsultantPharmaceutical Development ScientistEnvironmental EngineerFood and Drink Process EngineerOil Gas and Petrochemicals EngineerMaterials and Product Development Specialist
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University of Leeds
