by Blaž Rošer
Quick: imagine a life without electricity. You can’t even begin imagining it, right? And I mean that literally: you can’t start imagining, because you can’t read this article, because you don’t have a functioning computer or smartphone to read it on.
The world needs electrical engineers, and if you’re reading this you could be one of them. So the question is: should you study a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering abroad?
Well, if you stop to consider these 10 reasons, you will see that the answer is quite obvious, and it’s YES.
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1. It's easy to get your first Electrical Engineering job
Graduates of engineering schools start Electrical Engineering careers fairly easily because most employers search for fresh minds with good training.
They are glad to get young people they can mould to their own specific needs and turn them into experts. This is also the reason why electrical engineers are the most valued on the job market.
2. Plenty of affordable Electrical Engineering degrees to choose from
Electrical Engineering Master's degrees are some of the most popular in the world, after MBAs, and many can have steep tuition fees.
However, not all Electrical Engineering courses are expensive!
You just have to know where to look and find the perfect location in terms of price and quality. More affordable doesn't mean you'll get an inferior learning experience. Here are a few examples of low-tuition Electrical Engineering Master's degrees:
- M.Sc. at University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria - 1,450 EUR/year
- Master's at Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France - 3,770 EUR/year
- Master's at University of Pavia, Italy - 4,500 EUR/year
- M.Sc. at KU Leuven, Belgium - 6,000 EUR/year
You can also stop worrying about learning a foreign language. There are hundreds of Electrical Engineering courses taught in English all over the world.
3. You can work in another country after graduation
Being an electrical engineer means having a lot of job opportunities in countries all around the world. The laws of math and physics are universal, and your gained knowledge doesn't limit you to only the country you studied in.
There are a lot of international technical companies that need electrical engineers, and they are willing to employ people from other countries if they are good enough. Also, most of them operate at an international level, that offers you additional options for travelling while working. Besides, you are usually getting paid well for it!
Here are some top countries offering Electrical Engineering degrees:
4. Electric power won’t be your only focus
Being an electrical and electronics engineer doesn’t mean you will work your whole life plugging and unplugging electronics, or just designing electronic circuits.
Electrical Engineering degrees have the immense advantage of covering tens of specialisations, making the field very flexible and offering you a great chance of simply throwing a dart at a list and trying on areas like a nervous person tries clothes before a date: many, in a short period of time.
Some Electrical Engineering degree specialisations you could find interesting are:
- Radio-Frequency Engineering
- Signal Processing
- Microelectronics
- Control Systems
- Power Engineering
- Telecommunications
5. Study at top engineering schools
The best schools in the world provide top-quality Electrical Engineering degrees. You'll learn the secrets of the trade from the best international professors, in classes equipped with top-notch technology. This top-level education will help you develop your engineering skills to the next level.
These are some of the top electrical engineering schools ranked in the QS World University Ranking:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the US
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
- University of Cambridge, the UK
- ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
- Tsinghua University, China
- Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
- Technical University of Munich, Germany
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
- KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, South Korea
- The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR
Here are other universities we recommend for Electrical Engineering programmes:
- Florida Atlantic University, the US
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- University of Portsmouth, the UK
- University of Nicosia, Cyprus
6. The adrenaline rush of being an Electrical Engineering graduate
Maybe adrenaline isn't the first thing that pops into your mind when you think about Electrical Engineering, but trust me: there will be a lot of adrenaline rush moments if you start working with electrical systems.
Occasional jolts of electrical charge that hit you when you aren't paying attention and accidentally touch the leads of charged capacitors, or when you connect 2 wires that you shouldn't, or an electrical component more or less explodes in front of your eyes, because you connected it to the testing board in the wrong way...
Those events make you jump out of your chair and definitely raise your adrenaline level! And, on the plus side, you’ll most likely never do the same mistake again.
7. You will develop great DIY techniques
DIY or "Do It Yourself" is one of the more exciting reasons to get into Electrical Engineering. When you know how power generation, control panels and electrical systems work, how to transmit energy, what usually malfunctions and what are the basic rules of Electrical and Computer Engineering, you can make your own systems and devices, instead of searching and buying them.
And it’s not just everyday fixes, like changing a light bulb or a faulty fuse: you will also be able to cope with more complex problems within your household and those of your friends and family. And that doesn't only save you money, but also works great as a pick-up line...
8. You will join an awesome elite
Maybe you heard of some random folks named Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, Nikola Tesla, Alessandro Volta, and Robert Watson-Watt. All of them were Electrical Engineering majors and all of them left a huge legacy behind in their field.
There are also famous people who changed careers mid-life, but the influence of Electrical Engineering remained and kept them at a steady, upward climb. Personalities like Steve Wozniak, long-time business partner of a fellow named Steve Jobs, Mike Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City, and, last, but not least, Rowan Atkinson, aka the amazing Mr. Bean.
All of them were helped by the intuition and problem-solving skills they developed as electrical engineers and managed to occupy a high position in the field they transitioned into.
9. It will never be boring, as new gadgets come out all the time
Electrical and electronic components are modified, invented and reinvented every day, so you will never be bored! You won’t be using the same processor component for more than 10 years.
New and exciting stuff is available all the time and you will have lots of fun testing and assembling it.
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10. Only a few essential rules to keep in mind
- Things work better when plugged in.
- If smoke comes out, you did something wrong.
- If things don't work, read the manual.
So, are you ready to get admitted to the Electrical Engineering degree of your dreams?
