A HIGHER EDUCATION provider at Dyson’s Malmesbury campus has welcomed its largest-ever intake.

The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology - established by Sir James Dyson - saw 64 students arrive to take on its new master’s courses in September.

In a move away from degree apprenticeships at the institute, the students will work towards a four-year integrated engineering master’s or a two-year master of software engineering conversion course.

There are no tuition fees, and all learners will be paid a competitive Dyson salary and work on real engineering projects for the company three days a week.

Graduates from the Dyson Institute will take up roles within the company in the UK and in Dyson’s global markets, including at its headquarters in Singapore.

47 undergraduates are starting the four-year Master of Engineering course at the Dyson Institute this autumn.

Meanwhile, 17 are beginning the software engineering Master of Science, which was open to graduates of any subject who showed a keen interest in coding.

The MSc was designed to encourage people from unorthodox academic backgrounds into exciting engineering careers and has attracted a diverse range of candidates, including a medical doctor, a history graduate and a criminologist.

With 18 applicants for every place on the two courses, together, they are the most oversubscribed engineering courses anywhere in the UK, a Dyson spokesperson said.

The Dyson Institute in Malmesbury is located at Dyson’s core creative and engineering campus.

This campus is the base for more than 3,500 Dyson workers, including James Dyson and his son Jake.

In May, the Dyson Institute announced that it had been given full degree-awarding powers by the Office for Students, the independent regulator of higher education in England.

The institute had revealed in November 2023 that it was to drop degree apprenticeships and replace them with employer-sponsored MEng degrees - noting an ‘onerous administrative burden’.

“Currently, there is no way of offering an integrated master’s-level degree through a degree apprenticeship, which has influenced the decision,” a spokesperson for the higher education provider said at the time.

“Dyson has also found the regulation of the degree apprenticeship to be onerous - with a heavy (and costly) administrative burden falling on academic staff, administrators and the students themselves.”

The institute saw its first undergraduates join in September 2017 and graduate in 2021.