Typical Course Profile

Programme Features

At York, Computer Science is taught as a broad subject, where you cover theory as well as practice, and hardware (electronics) as well as software (programs), which are integrated in the design of systems. We encourage you to develop your professional competence as well as your intellectual adventure. We do not offer narrow training courses restricted to IT or to the design of web pages - although of course we do consider the theory and practice of these topics within an engineering context.

The first year is common to all of our single-subject programmes, and transfer between them is possible at any time during that year.

How your study time is spent?

The number of hours scheduled for lectures and laboratory periods is between 15 and 20 per week. However, much of the required learning is achieved outside the scheduled timetable. Consequently, students are expected to be self-motivated, self-disciplined and willing to learn outside regular classes.

Course Assessment

Our programmes are based on series of one-hour lectures with associated laboratory sessions, programming classes and tutorials. Throughout the programme, each student has a supervisor who is responsible for guiding his or her studies. There are problem classes in the second year and one-to-one weekly project supervisions in the final year.

Approximately 60% of the degree programme is assessed by means of closed examinations. These take place each January (covering the work of the Autumn term courses) and June (covering the Spring and Summer terms). In addition there is a range of essays, project reports and programming assignments associated with courses.

Skills you can gain from the course

Most importantly, you learn how to think and you gain a broad understanding of all of the essential scientific principles, engineering techniques and practices in Computer Science. This allows you to be flexible and a quick adaptor in any field that you wish to go into. More specifically, we can identify four main skill areas as follows:

The ability to approach problems analytically, and to design structured solutions

Throughout your programme you will have the opportunity to develop the ability to solve problems and produce effective solutions; a skill well recognised and valued by employers. In each year of your degree, laboratory courses will help you to develop skills of data analysis, design and implementation. You will also be introduced to a wide range of modern software development tools and techniques. Your projects will give you the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of the design and implementation process. Testing ideas and designs is an important part of this process. You will learn the theoretical and practical aspects of specifying and creating tests to assess designs and interpreting their results in terms of component or system design. In particular, these skills will extent to: (i) designing algorithms and programming computers in a principled way in any style of language, (ii) analysis and design of electronic systems for computation and interfacing to computer systems and (iii) analysis and design of systems software such as is used in operating systems, networks and compilers.

Research skills

Throughout the programme you will be given opportunities to learn research skills. These culminate in a major final year project where you will research a problem, identify the key issues, produce a critical assessment of the relevant literature, and generate a new solution. If you are an able student, your final project will be based within one of the research groups of the department. This will give you the opportunity to work on cutting edge technology in, for example, artificial intelligence, the next generation Internet software or distributed databases.

Management skills

You will have the opportunity to learn about the techniques, concepts and theories used in project management, and gain experience of putting them into effect to implement your own team project.

IT skills

You will gain a wide range of IT skills, including use of word processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheets. You will also get experience of writing Web pages and will have the opportunity to learn to write computer programs, and to use software packages.

Communication skills

Communication skills are an invaluable part of your portfolio in a computing career. You will have the opportunity to develop these skills throughout the programme, by means of, for example, oral and written presentations, in both formal and informal settings. This training produces graduates who are confident and competent in communicating their knowledge and skills to a wide range of audiences.

Opportunities to study abroad

The University operates a worldwide exchange programme that allows students to pursue international interests; there are links with a number of universities in North America, Asia and Australia. Note that whereas a sandwich placement is in addition to your years of academic study, an exchange replaces an academic year. The exchange programme is competitive; the deadline for applications is normally in January of your first year.

Career opportunities

The academic aspects of our programmes are enhanced by the inclusion of formal projects and opportunities to gain direct experience of industry, through industrial placements, internships or other vacation work. All our programmes provide their graduates with a range of skills attractive to a wide range of employers.

The demand for computer scientists and software engineers from the rapidly expanding field of information technology has created employment opportunities within a broad cross-section of employers. The electronics and software industries are the largest employer groups. Many other graduates take advantage of the continuing expansion in the use of computers in commercial and financial operations to find employment.

Graduates are not restricted to the above areas, and a small number obtain work in the media, management and social services. Although more emphasis would be placed on personal qualities in these particular cases it should be appreciated that the ability to work effectively with other people is an important aptitude that the Department aims to develop in students throughout their studies at York. Employers find our graduates highly able and thus they are significantly more likely to find top-tier employment or further training than the national average for computer science graduates.

Is this the right programme for me?

Your interests

A computer scientist/engineer needs to be able to structure their analysis and design. In many cases satisfaction is gained from constructing a clear and structured solution rather than from the final result. If you enjoy puzzles and intellectual games, it is likely that you already have this skill.

Your skills

The ability to work effectively with other people is an important aptitude that the Department aims to develop in students throughout their studies at York. We aim to educate our students to be able to choose, learn, understand and exploit a new language in a matter of days. It is important that you are able to communicate well - to express ideas and solutions, concisely and completely, both in formal specification language and informally. We do not expect you to arrive with much expertise in programming but some experience and knowledge of what a computer is, is important.

Subject requirements

Mathematics is the only required subject, although an experimental science, such as Physics or Electronics, is also helpful preparation. An A-level (or equivalent qualification) in Computer Science/Studies or ICT is not required for entrance to any of our programmes.

Practical skills

You will need to be prepared to read a lot of different materials and make sense of complex written ideas, as well as undertaking your own independent study. It would also be helpful to be reasonably computer literate in producing essays and undertaking research. Once at the University, the facilities of its IT Services are available to you, as are a range of free courses designed to help you develop your IT and study skills at University level.

Department of Computer Science