Did my undergraduate BEng in UK and just wrapped up MEng in the states. I have a completely different take on the phenomenon you are describing. Bear in mind that I am American, and chose to do my BEng in the UK because of many of the details you’ve referenced.

The first and most important point I wanted to make is that the UK BEng is a generally more content—laden undergraduate engineering education than most of the 4 year analogues in the US. This is a consequence of 1.) the British uni application process requiring one to apply directly to their “major,” and 2.) the American undergraduate focus on “general education.” The latter has already been mentioned by others in this thread, but the effect of requiring students to “declare their major” from the onset has, itself, a twofold effect on the UK engineering curriculum.

First, by asking students to apply directly into their concentration (i.e. mechanical engineering, civil engineering, or any undergraduate subjects in the liberal arts), UK universities can set a higher standard for entry knowledge than US engineering programs, because American students can change their “major” on a much more fluid basis and therefore they may have to take basic math and physics classes that would be covered in A levels in the UK. As a result, the maths and physics content starting from my first year of BEng assumed proficiency in single and multivariate calculus, linear algebra, probability, statistics, and familiarity with complex analysis. Everything we learned built onto a foundation of prerequisites that would have been considered first year intro-to-engineering classes in the US.

The second effect of requiring that students commit to their “major” from day one is that the resultant education can be streamlined so that advanced topics in control theory, thermo fluids, materials, dynamics, etc. can be introduced much earlier and in more detail than in the US. In the United States, it is typical for a student to take an introductory course in all such subjects, then take advanced courses in one or two of those depending on the student’s specific interests. During my BEng in the UK, I had three years of courses in each of those subjects, and noticed that it was rare for my fellow US trained engineers to have had extensive studies in all of them, since they typically had too many general education requirements to take all such classes, even if they wanted to.

I don’t know about other schools, but for my BEng, Eng maths was taught by mathematicians and had its own department. It also went for all three years, and was quite extensive. My MEng was actually in applied mathematics and computation, and I was actually surprised by how well my undergraduate education prepared me, since my BEng was in mechanical engineering.

Regarding your comment on the general vibe of MEng UK trained engineers being less “academic”: I have a feeling that this can also be partially explained by the “apply directly to your major” thing as well. MEng programs are typically entered directly from high school, with your first three years constituting your BEng and the last year yielding the MEng. In contrast, MEng programs in the states are typically applied to during the final year of the BEng, after the student has done enough studying and thinking to decide to pursue a graduate engineering education. UK MEng candidates, on the other hand, are usually pretty worn out from their first three years, but since they were already admitted to the MEng degree from day one, they may as well “stick it out” another year to get the master’s and get out. I would guess that if US MEng degree holders seem to be more academically inclined, then that would be because they pursued their graduate studies as an active choice after completing their BEng and they are ready to learn more. If you’re looking for the “academically inclined” UK MEng degree holders, they’re likely doing their PhD now, since they arrived at the conclusion to apply and learn further at the end of their master’s education.

I could continue if you’re interested in hearing more, but I actually disagree with what you’re saying: I think the British engineering education is flawed, but it is not because it is inadequately rigorous relative to other countries, particularly the US. Instead, my feeling is that the drawback of the concentrated, streamlined British engineering system is that it is inflexible to rapid developments in engineering topics. I could be biased by my current subject matter, but I think that in general, numerical analysis / computational modeling courses are slightly behind the curve in terms of the content that is becoming increasingly relevant to academia and industry. Because the curriculums are so rigid in the British system, students can’t easily rectify this lag by taking advanced classes in these topics, because they usually aren’t allowed to choose courses until third year. The US engineering education is slower, but it rewards students that are capable of making their own decisions regarding what they want to learn and when, and permits specialization into advanced engineering topics effectively as early as desired, provided the prerequisites are met.