Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering Top Colleges, Syllabus, Scope and Salary

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering is a doctorate level degree that is five to eight years long and can be pursued by candidates irrespective of what their specialisation or stream was at the bachelors’ level. The course is focussed entirely on Mechanical Engineering and is a research based course that delves further into this specific field of study. Candidates should however have a strong background in maths and science.

Top Universities for this course include:

• Indian Institute of Technology
• Hindustan University, Chennai.

All Universities have their own guidelines for admissions in such courses. Most colleges require candidates to have a masters’ degree in engineering or technology or a bachelors’ degree in engineering or science (4 year course) with a minimum 75 per cent marks. Candidates with a masters’ degree in science or other related areas may also apply if they have a minimum of 65% marks, a first division in their bachelors’ degree and a 95 percentile or higher in the Graduate Aptitute Test in Engineering (GATE).

The full time fee charged for the course in India ranges from 96 thousand to 3.16 Lacs, and the average salary offered to such professionals 337,899 per annum, increasing with experience and expertise.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: Course Highlights

Doctorate of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering: What is it About?

The course covers topics in Math and Science that require students to have background knowledge in mechanics, thermodynamics, and scientific computing. The course teaches and allows candidates to learn great mechanical engineering skills, as well as technical drawing and computing skills necessary in the designing of machines and equipment.

Mechanical Engineering is not only a technical subject, but is also an analytical area of study and any good course equips its students with not only with the technical ability necessary to excel in this course but also with the ability to apply abstract concepts in real world usage. The field requires a great degree of innovation and out of the box thinking and is concerned with the adopting of new approaches to already existing problems. Professionals in this field are often required to work with various other persons through the course of their career and thus being adaptable to different work environments and being able to communicate effectively with different persons is also of paramount importance.

Mechanical Engineering although a very technical field of study is one that has great scope for research and thus is an interesting subject to be delved further into. Understanding and researching further into the field is essential for greater innovation to occur in this area. One of the benefits of studying Mechanical Engineering is that it is considered an all purpose engineering degree and leaves the scope open for pursuing a career in various fields of engineering.

Graduates from this course are likely to be recruited into fields of research and academia, in colleges and universities, kinetics, thermodynamics, robotics, oil exploration and refining, power plants, and etcetera. Professionals in this field need to be technically proficient, able communicators, as well as capable of conducting themselves professionally in settings such as seminars or fundraisers. In fact even those that go into research need to get funding for the same so being personable is definitely an important quality.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: top universities offering the course

Eligibility for Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

Candidates wishing to apply for the course need to have completed their masters’ degree in engineering or technology with at least the minimum requisite marks. A student from a masters’ degree in science may also apply, if they have given the GATE and have 65% minimum marks. Bachelor’s degree candidates may also apply from engineering or science with a minimum 75% marks.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: Admission Process

In most institutes for Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering candidates that fulfil the eligibility and have given their all India entrance test in the case of certain universities, can fill out the physical or online application forms.  In certain colleges the entrance test will not matter but the final admission would be granted on the basis of marks scored at the bachelors or masters level that is it would be merit based.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: Syllabus and Course Description

All engineering doctorate courses have common course work for their first semester which is

Once the common course work has been completed and tested in an end semester examination, candidates would have to carry on their course work in their specialised field of study, which in this case would be Advances in Mechanical Engineering. The research part of the course is entirely independent and it is up to the candidate to get the funding and approval for the same.

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering: Career Prospects

Graduates in the field of mechanical engineering have a wide range of opportunities open to them in the field of engineering given that this is a course which covers a wide range of topics in the foundation stage thus equipping candidates with the knowledge necessary in order to work at least as a middle level professional in any field of engineering. Apart from taking the obvious route and working as a mechanical or other engineer, candidates may also choose to work in managerial or administrative positions in industries such as power plants, oil refineries, manufacturing sectors, and etcetera.

After graduating from this course they may find employment in both private sector as well as public sector enterprises since the nature of this job is quite versatile and both public sector welfare projects and private sector profit making endeavours require the expertise of mechanical engineers.

They may also go into academics as lecturers or professors, or carry on as research scientists, coming up with their own field of study to research to innovate in. Job positions include junior engineer, executive engineer, assistant engineer, superintendent engineer, mechanical design engineer, mechanical sales engineer, independent consultants, researchers, and etcetera.

Some of the popular professional avenues open to successful graduates of the course are listed below with the corresponding salaries offered for the respective positions.

Candidate seeking admission to 3 year Full-Time Ph.D. program should meet the following criteria as specified by the institute.

Academic Requirement

Candidates must have obtained Master's Degree in Engineering/ Technology/ Sciences/ Management/ Humanities & Social Sciences or in interdisciplinary/trans-disciplinary discipline with minimum CGPA of 6.75 on a ten point scale in relative grading system or minimum CGPA of 6.00 in absolute grading system or 60% marks in aggregate of any University established by law.

Entrance Exam

Admission is based on the Entrance Test.