Study abroad - Automotive / Motor Vehicles

More about Automotive / Motor Vehicles

The automotive industry includes design, production, and use of motor vehicles of all kinds from cars to buses and trucks of all sizes. Here are a few tips on what some of the options are if you have a particular interest in and wish to focus your higher education choices on a career involving cars and larger motor vehicles.

Automotive Engineering

The possibly most common degree specifically designed for the automotive industry is automotive engineering. An automotive engineer focuses on elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering. These items are applied to the design, manufacture and operation of anything from motorcycles and automobiles to trucks and buses.   

There are three main branches of automotive engineering:

• The product engineer or design engineer designs components and systems, tests parts and makes sure that all quality standards are upheld by design and material.
• The development engineer focuses on the attributes of the vehicle to ensure that for example the ride characteristics are correct and performance corresponds to the requirements.
• The manufacturing engineer is involved in the actual production and plans how to make the finished vehicle.

Automotive Management

Automotive management and its derivatives such as automotive dealership management focus on the business aspects of the industry such as marketing, sales and distributing the finished automotive product. Such programs are offered at both bachelor and master degree level and include the basics of business and marketing principles with a direction toward industry specific courses. Such programs are often closely linked with large players within the automotive industry who will be involved in teaching, seminars and work placements.