Post-graduate Forensic Engineering at The Open University

We have prepared a new course in forensic engineering in our post-graduate programme. It introduces the subject of failure analysis in its widest sense, so includes product failure, accident investigation, and patent examination. With biannual presentation, it attracts about 80 students per year, and has a high retention record as well as excellent exam results. Most of our students have applied knowledge from the course in their jobs, with savings to their employers. However, the subject is poorly published with very few journals, and although metal failures are described in standard texts, there is much less available on non-metal product failures.