The Dyson Institute is an independent provider of higher education. Its mission is to build challenging and enriching educational experiences, which are free, student-centric and aligned with the needs of industry.

In October 2020, The Dyson Institute became the first higher education institution in the UK to be awarded New Degree Awarding Powers. This new type of authorisation allows brand new providers, with no previous experience of higher education, to deliver and award their own degrees. The Dyson Institute will enrol its first independent students in September 2021. Dyson Institute students previously had their degrees delivered and awarded through a successful partnership arrangement with Warwick Manufacturing Group, the University of Warwick.

Central to The Dyson Institute’s proposition is an academically rigorous degree combined with workplace experience on real engineering projects.

The Dyson Institute’s academic provision is a four-year Engineering programme designed to develop the engineering, problem-solving mind-set. Undergraduate Engineers at The Dyson Institute spend four years studying towards a BEng (Hons) degree in Engineering and a Level 6 apprenticeship in Product Design and Development. The degree is multidisciplinary by design, teaching the breadth of Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics Engineering for the first two years. We recognise that the most challenging engineering problems demand intelligent integration across traditional disciplines and that solutions no longer live purely in the Mechanical or Electronics fields, traditionally taught separately. Advancements are made at the technology interfaces and therefore demand a cross discipline understanding. Computational problem solving also underpins modern engineering solutions: the degree teaches programming methods, data acquisition and analysis from the very first lecture.

At the same time, students are employed as Undergraduate Engineers in Dyson Technology, working three days per week on live engineering projects. The combination of professional engineers, scientists and researchers working alongside passionate, experienced teaching staff to deliver our programme builds students’ capability to apply academic knowledge to solve real-world problems, while an associated professional development programme builds students’ leadership, resilience, self-awareness and professional competence.

Each year group has an allocated Student Support Advisor (SSA), who is the first port of call for student support. There is one SSA per year group, ensuring that the SSA can provide high quality, bespoke support. SSAs arrange individual monthly meetings with their students, supporting them with a broad range of issues, from stress management to mitigating circumstances. All SSAs are also trained coaches and offer one to one coaching sessions with their students, supporting their professional development.

We have over 4,000m² of dedicated education space including two lab spaces with large desks and state-of-the-art laboratory equipment for practical, hands-on experiments. Our three lecture spaces include lecture capture technology, so that lectures can be watched again at a later date, and feature at least six Surface Hubs on the walls, supporting collaborative discussions and projects. We also have meeting rooms, dedicated office space and breakout rooms with screens and facilities to support both individual and group work.

Our onsite accommodation, the Dyson Village, is made up of 63 modular ‘pods’. Stacked up to three high, the pods are arranged and angled in the campus landscape to provide every Undergraduate with high-quality accommodation complete with a great view. To create the feel of a village each pod has its own front door, the lower ones opening onto the landscaped garden, and higher ones accessed by pavements on curved ramps. Each Undergraduate Engineer lives in their own pod, with a sleeping and study area, a bathroom and ample storage. There are also communal kitchen pods, laundry pods and social pods for relaxing.