Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

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• Why study Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Christ's?
• Course content and structure
• Teaching
• What do our students think?
• How to apply
  • Subjects: what do you need?
  • ESAT - register by mid-September
  • Interviews
  • Offers
• Helpful resources
• Come to an Open Day or Online Event
• Want to know more?

Why Study Chemical Engineering at Christ's?

Christ's usually welcomes a small, close-knit cohort of undergraduates, which means each student benefits from plenty of personalised guidance and individual attention.

Our graduates pursue further study or move into in various sectors, ranging from classical chemical engineering with major oil companies and public utilities, to financial services and management consulting. Some have opted to work in the food industry (for companies such as Mars), in consumer products (Unilever, P&G) or for well-known cosmetics companies.
 

Course content and structure

The course concentrates on the scientific principles that underpin the discipline. These principles are essential to develop processes and products that address some of the problems currently facing humanity. These include the energy transition away from fossil fuels, the need for sustainable food and water supplies as climate change occurs, and the provision of improved global healthcare solutions and therapeutics.

Please check the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology website course structure page and the Chemical Engineering and Biotechology course information for more detail, including the course film. If you have further questions about the course content, please contact admissions@ceb.cam.ac.uk.
 

Teaching

Christ’s College Director of Studies in Chemical Engineering is Dr Tom Matthams. He can advise you on choosing options and arranges your twice-weekly ‘supervisions’. During these small tutorial teaching sessions (usually in groups of two) you receive support and tuition tailored to your personal work. As other universities usually tutor in much larger groups, this approach is a real advantage of a Cambridge education.

If you’d like to pursue interests beyond Chemical Engineering, you can attend almost any other lecture at the University. Many students take advantage of this to learn or improve a foreign language. And there are plenty of academic societies which hold interesting events and talks – look out for the Cambridge University Chemical Engineering Society (CUCES)
 

What do our students think?

The Chemical Engineering course has changed since Dave studied it (students now study Chemical Engineering from the first year), but this student profile may still be helpful.

If you would like to hear from other Christ's students, please watch the Christ's student Q&A film, and visit our Student Profiles page.

How to apply

Visit How to Apply for full details and a timeline of the application process. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and school types, all over the world. If you're applying from outside the UK, please read our international students section.

In your UCAS application, you should apply for:

• Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (UCAS code H810)

Subjects: what do you need?

Required A-level, IB Higher Level, Scottish Advanced Higher or equivalent subjects for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Christ's are

• Mathematics
• Chemistry
• one further Maths/Science subject (this means one further subject out of Physics, Further Maths or Biology)

For applicants taking the International Baccalareate the Mathematics option should be Higher Level 'Analysis and Approaches'

We have a section for applicants from Scotland with a page for Chemical Engineering applicants.

If you want to study A level Further Mathematics but your school/college doesn't offer it, you might be able to get support through the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme.

ESAT (Registration required)

All applicants for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Cambridge must sit a computer-based assessment called the ESAT (Engineering and Science Admissions Test) as part of their application. This is the same at all Cambridge Colleges.

You will need to sit the ESAT at a Pearson VUE test centre. There are tests centres in over 180 countries - you will be able to find your nearest test centre nearer the time on the Pearson VUE website. The entry fee is £75 to sit the ESAT in the UK or Republic of Ireland, or £130 to sit the test in another country. Note that UK students in financial need can apply for a bursary voucher (a unique code which can be used instead of payment when registering - further detail will be available later in the Spring).

To help with preparation, free practice materials will be available in May 2024. There will also be more information about the test format, specification and other support materials.

There is no set score that we are looking for and we don't expect you to get every question right. The ESAT forms part of our holistic admissions process, which means that we will look at your scores in the context of your whole application.

Interviews

If we invite you for interviews, these usually take place in early December. Those invited for Cambridge interviews are normally interviewed for 35-50 minutes in total. At Christ’s, we usually split the time into two interviews with subject-relevant academics. Further detail about the format of interviews will be available here nearer the time.

During the interviews we might ask you about topics you’re not familiar with. Our aim is to assess your innate engineering and/or scientific ability when working through unprepared questions and see how quickly you absorb new ideas. It’s not about catching you out. We help you work through unseen problems and ask you to think out loud as you tackle them, so we understand your individual approach.

Further, more general information about interviews (including two useful films) is available in the Cambridge interviews section, and it's worth also having a look at supervisions (short film here), as interviews are similar to what you do every week as a Cambridge student.

Offers

At Christ's we don’t have fixed quotas for places, so the number of students we admit in any year depends on the strengths of the applicants. In Chemical Engineering, we aim to admit at least two students each year.

We define the terms of each offer individually, but a typical offer for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is:

• A*, A*, A at A-level (we require A-level students to complete and pass the practical assessment in science subjects)
• 42 points overall in the International Baccalaureate with 7,7,6 in relevant Higher Level subjects
• A1, A1, A2 in three relevant Scottish Advanced Highers

You need to be academically ambitious: the majority of Christ's students arrive with higher grades than are required.

If you're taking another qualification, we expect you to be working at or close to the top of the mark range, for example

• Option Internationale du Baccalaureat: at least 17/20 overall, with 17 or 18 in relevant subjects
• European Baccalaureate: at least 85% overall, with 9/10 in relevant subjects

You can look up other qualifications in the offer levels for other exam systems and international entry requirements, and if you are applying from outside the UK please read the Christ's international students section for further information and check the country pages.

If you will have finished school when you apply, please also read about post-qualification applications, taking a gap year, and, if relevant, applying from a university.

Helpful resources

Come to an Open Day or Webinar

Online events: Our open days and events page advertises online opportunities as well as events you can attend in Cambridge (in normal times). These include our regular webinars from February until August, and our College Open Days in October, February and September.

Coming to a Christ's College Open Day is a good way to find out more about the College. You can get a feel for the place and ask current students and staff all about studying Chemical Engineering here.

Want to know more?

For a fuller picture of what the course involves, please take a look at Undergraduate Chemical Engineering admissions on the University website and visit the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology too.

If you have any other queries, please send them to admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk and we’ll help however we can.

Undergraduate Admissions / Subject list / How to apply / Why Christ's?