Teaching and Learning: Mechanical Engineering students working on a diesel engine, 1938, that had been in use for thirty years.
As well as practical laboratory work some subjects, particularly engineering, required time in the workshop. This work often fed into the rest of the course, as the Engineering Workshop was:
‘equipped with suitable machine tools for carrying out maintenance work on the laboratory plant, preparing specimens for testing during laboratory courses, and manufacturing the special equipment required for research work.’ 1947-1948
The importance of workshop experience is emphasised in the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department’s Course description,
‘The workshop part of an Engineer’s training can only be properly learned in the works of a manufacturing engineer…It is…an advantage to students who take their college course previous to becoming apprentices or pupils in engineering works to take the college workshop course.’
This is still the case today as the Mechanical Engineering school has a fully equipped teaching workshop where students learn the basics of workshop practice.