My first impressions of Cranfield University

Hello, I’m Óscar Daniel Castrillo!

Before coming to Cranfield University, I studied for my Aerospace Engineering degree in Spain, at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Throughout my degree, I became more and more interested in the business and economics side of aviation, so I decided to study for my MSc in Air Transport Management at Cranfield to achieve a holistic perspective of aviation.

In the last year of my degree, I spent weeks researching about all the universities offering this MSc and Cranfield was the most appealing one in every respect. Basically, because it is the only university that has everything I asked for. I was looking for a university with good employability prospects, a strong reputation and links with the industry, top-notch facilities, an aerospace atmosphere, tuition in English and 1-year master’s degrees.

Cranfield has utterly lived up to my expectations, even if they were very hard to live up to! The quality and level of our lecturers has blown me away since the beginning. We have many lecturers from Cranfield with a strong background in the airline and airport industry, and others with a highly respected research career. When I carried out my degree final project, before Cranfield, and started researching about air transport, I had to read a lot of papers, books and journals about the topic. Here I have found out that many of the authors that I had to reference on my project teach or have studied at Cranfield! In addition, we have guest lecturers coming in every single module, who normally occupy or occupied executive and senior positions in the industry, providing us insights into the reality of how the industry works.

Last but not least, if you are keen on aviation, you will be able to take advantage of the aerospace atmosphere at Cranfield. Here I have enjoyed the opportunity to talk to people with experience from all the sectors across the aerospace industry: aircraft maintenance technicians, aerospace engineers who have worked for the largest aerospace companies in the past, flight attendants, pilots, catering managers, helicopters technicians… My knowledge about the industry increases every single day, both inside and outside the lecture room. Besides, Cranfield have many societies for the students, and I have already joined the Cranfield Aeronautical Society, where we organise visits and events related to aviation. And, obviously, it is just awesome that Cranfield has its own airport and fleet. Something I enjoy a lot is just strolling around the airport with my friends!

It took me a lot of time to make up my mind about whether to apply for Cranfield or not, but I am happy I did! Sincerely, for me, there is no better place on earth to do an Aerospace master’s degree!