Programme Summary

We are flexible in the way you complete your course units, you can either attend the one week taught course unit or take the distance learning version, as long as you complete the correct number of course units required for the award you are registered for. Full time UKVI students must attend the one week taught course units in-person, on campus, other full time students can apply to take a maximum of two course units via distance learning if there are mitigating circumstances.

Individual subjects are presented in ‘short course’ modular format, providing excellent access to the programme for engineers and managers in full-time employment who wish to advance their skill and knowledge base on a part time basis, either over two or three years.

As a full time student, although you will only be in actual teaching for eight weeks of the year, there will be plenty of work for you to do. Four weeks before each course unit, you will receive pre-course reading and possibly pre-course assessments to be completed before the start of the course unit. There are also post course assessments to complete for the course units and revision for the exams. At points of the year, you will be working on pre-course work for future course units, attending course units, completing post course assessments for previous course units and revision at the same time.

A list of the course units is given below together with the institution responsible for their provision and where the course unit is held. You can find more information on the delivery formats here.

University of Manchester UKVI full time international students, will have to attend the student hub on campus twice a week to confirm their attendance on campus. You will not have to do this during weeks when you are attending a course unit.

List of Course Units and Providers

Course Unit	Provider	Held in
N01 Reactor Physics and Systems	University of Manchester	Manchester
N02 Nuclear Fuel Cycle	University of Manchester	Manchester
N03 Radiation & Radiological Protection	University of Manchester	Manchester
N04 Decommissioning, Radioactively Contaminated Land & Environmental Management	University of Manchester	Manchester
N06 Reactor Materials & Lifetime Behaviour	University of Manchester	Manchester
N07 Nuclear Safety Case Development	Nuclear Department, Navy Command	Manchester
N08 Particle Engineering in the Nuclear Industry	University of Leeds	Leeds
N09 Nuclear Law, Licensing & Policy	University of Manchester	Manchester
N10 Processing, Storage & Disposal of Nuclear Waste	University of Sheffield	Sheffield
N11 Radiation Shielding	University of Liverpool	Liverpool
N12 Reactor Thermal Hydraulics	Nuclear Department, Navy Command	Manchester
N13 Criticality Safety Management	Nuclear Department, Navy Command	Manchester
N15 Severe Accidents	University of Manchester	Manchester
N16 Chemical Aspects of Nuclear Technology	University of Manchester	Manchester
N17 Tritium & the Fusion Fuel Cycle	University of Manchester	Manchester
N18 Control and Instrumentation (C&I) & Functional Safety	University of Manchester	Manchester
N19 Primary Circuit Materials & Manufacturing	University of Manchester	Manchester
N31 Management of the Decommissioning Process	University of Birmingham	Birmingham
N32 Experimental Reactor Physics	University of Manchester	Vienna, Austria / Prague, Czech Republic *

* students wishing to take the N32 course unit must first take the N01 – Reactor Physics and Systems course unit as it is a pre-requisite

Presentation of course unit content

Course Units Explained

Timetable 2025 – 26

Course Unit Weightings 2025 – 26

Course Unit Summaries