Computing MSc

What makes MSc Computing at Worcester special?

If you are looking to embark on a career in computing but don’t yet have a computing qualification, our Master of Science in Computing (MSc) program is a great choice. This program is tailored to individuals who are passionate about technology and come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds. Taught by academic staff who have a wealth of experience in industry, research and teaching, you will gain experience in the latest technological developments.

*subject to approval (2025)

Overview

Key features

The course is designed to give you a professional understanding of computing practices focussed on the design, build, implementation and technical management of computer systems. Although computing is a technical subject, our course will ensure you don’t lose sight of other crucial professional aspects, such as ethical responsibility, entrepreneurship and sustainable systems development
The course equips you for a professional mastery in computing and has the following features:
- Modules that incorporate the latest research and contemporary ideas in the profession
- Structured learning that will give you an accessible introduction to computing practices and build on these to make you a confident computing professional, researcher and decision-maker
- Teaching staff from a wealth of backgrounds including industrial and business applications, and advanced research establishments
- Hands on experience in exploring the latest technological and computing technologies, such as AI programming, autonomous systems and Internet of Things technologies

Entry requirements

An honours degree at 2:2 level or above in any subject (or International students holding a qualification recognised as equivalent by the University).

Entry to the MSc Computing requires all applicants to complete an application form. Where information on the form is insufficient for a decision to be made the applicant will be requested to attend an interview with the Admission Tutor.

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the Admissions Office on 01905 855111 or email admissions@worc.ac.uk for advice.

Other information

Students with relevant previous study at postgraduate level or with extensive experience may be considered eligible for recognition of prior learning. Please contact the Registry Admissions Office for further information or guidance on 01905 855111. Further information can be found on our Recognition of Prior Learning Registry Services page.

International students

Students whose first language is not English are required to demonstrate proficiency to a minimum level of 6.5 IELTS (and minimum of 5.5 in each element) or equivalent.

We accept IELTS, Pearson and many Cambridge certificates as a proof of English language fluency on our degree courses. Other equivalent English qualifications will also be considered as well as qualifications recognised as equivalent by the University. Some courses may require a higher score for professional accreditation or registration. Find out more about language requirements and support.

Course content

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative.

Semester 1	Programming and System Development Research Methods Computer Systems Determining System Requirements
Semester 2	Digital Ethics, Security and Governance Computing Team Project Managing Computer Projects Computing Research Topics
Semester 3	Research Project (Dissertation)
Internship (Optional)	An optional internship (up to 6 months in duration) is available to all students, taking place on completion of the taught modules. This internship will not be credit-rated but will allow the student to gain first-hand experience within a real business environment to enhance their future employability. Students may also choose to make use of this opportunity to base their Research Project on a business-related issue arising during the internship. There may be possibilities, with the employer’s permission, to gain access to research participants and primary data, and to apply their understanding of theories and principles discussed within their programme to a live organisational setting. Securing the internship is the responsibility of the students to arrange and is not necessarily paid. Students who request the internship option will need to secure this by a specified deadline. If the deadline isn't met, the course will revert to the route without internship. If you decided to take the internship option, the duration of the course will be 18 months. The internship begins when the taught elements of the course are completed and could be up to 6 months in duration. Full engagement with the dissertation will start at the end of the internship.

Teaching and assessment

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement.

A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the personal academic tutoring system, will enable you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences to help you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive workshops, lectures, seminars and laboratory practicals, fieldwork, practical activities etc. Interactive workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to enable the application of learning through discussion and small group activities. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and laboratory practicals are focused on developing subject specific skills and applied individual and group project work.

In addition, meetings with Personal Academic Tutors are scheduled during your studies. Meetings are also scheduled with the Research Project supervisors throughout the execution of the project.

Contact time

Each module will have a weekly session of two hours. In a typical week you will have around eight contact hours of teaching, but this might differ based on the number of modules taken in each semester if you selected the part-time study mode.

Teaching sessions will typically take place in our dedicated computer labs. We also have open access computer labs that you can use outside of scheduled teaching sessions.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 30 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Duration

Full-time: 1 year
Part-time: At least 2 years (maximum registration is 6 years)

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week; and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience, demonstrators and technical officers.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy, and many of our lecturers have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments.

Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include written examinations and a range of coursework assessments such as essays, reports, portfolios, performance, presentations and a final year independent studies project.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern of the course is:

3 x written reports
1 x group project
2 x practical assessments
3 x presentation
2 x formal examinations of 2 hours duration
1 x research proposal
Major dissertation

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We will provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience, and visiting speakers with specialised expertise. Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy work carried out by staff and you can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Here are a few of the current members of the department who teach on this course:

Dr Andrew Tomlinson

Andrew has worked on computing projects for over twenty years. His work has included information systems development, systems analysis, IT strategy planning, data science and research. He has worked on systems for healthcare and medical diagnosis, banking, transport, cybersecurity, DNA analysis, and telecoms. Andrew’s PhD looked at detecting cyberattacks in vehicles – a potential huge problem in future driverless cars.

When he is not researching the latest computing developments or planning lectures, Andrew enjoys watching old movies, especially from the silent era, and listening to all sorts of music.

Dr Colin B Price

Colin has spent his entire career in education. From the early years teaching Physics at the British School of Brussels to his current post as Principal Lecturer in Computing, Colin has always strived to integrate his research and teaching. He has held faculty positions at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where he has taught Electronic Engineering and also Physics to Medical Science students.

PhD Electrotechnical Engineering (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)

MA Natural Sciences (Cantab)

BA Natural Sciences (Cantab)

Dr Chris Bowers

Chris is a Principal Lecturer in Computing and is currently the China Partnership Lead for Worcester Business School. His research is focussed on Interactive Intelligent Systems encompassing a range of application areas including behaviour change technologies, energy demand management, health and wellbeing.

Chris completed a BSc in Physics and Computer Science at Keele University before progressing to a MSc in Natural Computation at the University of Birmingham and then continuing at the University of Birmingham to complete a PhD in Computer Science.

Dr Hayder Ghazi Alwattar

Throughout his career Hayder has had a skill and passion for passing on knowledge in one form or another. During Hayder's PhD studies, he mentored several senior undergraduates at Girne American University, which is when he realized his passion for teaching.

Peter Clews

Peter has a wide variety of industry experience, including three years in database administration and data analysis for Mercedes-Benz dealerships. He has a BSc Computing with Business from the University of Worcester, where he was awarded the Academic Achievement Scholarship for his first-year results. He has an MSc in Business Intelligence from Birmingham City University (with distinction), where the topic of his dissertation was a review of rudimentary methods of sarcasm classification in tweets.

Peter currently assists with delivering the undergraduate database modules, as well as contributing to the postgraduate corporate intelligence modules. His research interests include data mining, text mining, machine learning algorithms and database architectures. Peter also has a keen interest in the provision of support for students on the autistic spectrum within higher education.

Bradley Carwardine

Bradley has extensive industry experience in many technology sectors. He has worked in commercial programming, networking infrastructure installation and has supported the UK Special Forces in a variety of technological integration projects. Bradley is a qualified teacher and has been teaching computer science for over 15 years. He has been teaching in the FE and HE for the last 5 years.

Careers

Our MSc will equip you with skills to pursue your career in computing and digital technologies and will also pave the way for studying this field at PhD level, should that be your desire.

Opportunities for computing professionals include:

System Developer
Programmer
Requirements Analyst
Artificial Intelligence Engineer
Games Developer
Data Scientist
System Support
Computer Project Manager
Digital Start-up Entrepreneur

Beyond specific technical skills, our MSc will give you the opportunity to develop a range of transferable skills which are highly valued, such as, problem solving, team leadership, presentation skills, adaptability, and a sustainability mindset.

Fees and funding

Full-time tuition fees	UK and EU students The standard tuition fee for full-time home and EU students enrolling on MA/MSc/MBA/MRes courses in the academic year 2024/25 is £9,000 per year. For more details, please visit our course fees page.	International students The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on MA/MSc/MBA/MRes courses in the academic year 2024/25 is £17,400 per year. For more details, please visit our course fees page.
Part-time tuition fees	UK and EU students The standard tuition fees for part-time home and EU students enrolling on MA/MSc/MBA/MRes/PGCert/PGDip courses in the academic year 2024/25 are £750 per 15-credit module, £1,500 per 30-credit module, £2,250 per 45-credit module, and £3,000 per 60 credit module. For more details, please visit our course fees page.	International students The standard tuition fees for part-time international students enrolling on MA/MSc/MBA/MRes courses in the academic year 2024/25 are £1,450 per 15-credit module, £2,900 per 30-credit module, £4,350 per 45-credit module, and £5,800 per 60 credit module. For more details, please visit our course fees page.
Additional costs	Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses. If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.
Accommodation	Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study. We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Chestnut Halls' at £131 per week to 'Oak Halls' at £221 per week (2024/25 prices). For full details visit our accommodation page.
Postgraduate loans	The Government will provide a loan of up to £11,836 if your course starts on or after 1 August 2022 per eligible student for postgraduate Masters study. It will be at your own discretion whether the loan is used towards fees, maintenance or other costs. For more details visit our postgraduate loans page.

Full-time tuition fees