MSc

Computing and Information Systems

This course will help you widen your abilities in a number of modern computing fields, focusing on the invaluable skills that employers are demanding in today’s IT industry.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £10,800*

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

You will learn how to apply essential skills to help solve real-world problems and turn yourself into a well-rounded and employable IT professional.

Design for

Our course is ideal for anyone passionate about computing, with or without formal qualifications. Whether you’re boosting your computing-based undergraduate skills to a master’s level or formalising your skills from informal expertise, this a fantastic way to advance your career. Successful graduates from various backgrounds have thrived on this course.

Accredited by

  • BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

Career Paths

  • Applications Developer
  • Database Administrator
  • IT Project Manager
  • Web Developer
  • Network Engineer

Skills taught

  • Software Development
  • Data Analytics
  • Project Management
  • Database Development
  • Programming

Course Highlights

Stand Out From the Crowd

If you already have a degree in computing, a master’s qualification will advance your skills and boost your career.

Formalising Skills Into Qualifications

No formal computing qualifications? With the right experience, we can help you gain a qualification that unlocks new career opportunities.

Study Your Way

Our part-time and full-time study options allow you to learn at your own pace.

Choose Your Own Path

With a choice of optional modules, you can pick the skills that you are most interested in to develop.

Accredited by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

Our BCS accreditation will help you stand out to employers and connect you to a vast professional network.

Module Overview

The course starts with foundational concepts, ensuring you build essential skills before advancing through a schedule carefully designed to help reinforce and expand your knowledge step by step. You’ll study several compulsory modules along with one optional module of your choice, before completing a project in your chosen topic.

Principles of Computing
This module will set you up for the rest of the course, giving you key skills in programming and databases that comprise the foundation of computing and information systems.

Software Development
You will use a number of practical programming approaches that allow you to plan, design and develop an appropriate solution to a problem situation.

Big Data & Analytics
Organisations today collect vast and ever-expanding datasets. Here you will find out how such datasets can be managed and, more importantly, how we can do something useful with it.

ICT Systems Development
Advance your database skills even further, as you learn more about the technologies that are used and apply them to complex problems, particularly in geographic contexts.

Networking Technologies
You might choose to develop skills that help you to design and maintain computer networks in this alternative optional module.

GIS Principles & Practice
Or focus on the way that spatial data can be analysed and visualised to solve real-world problems in this third optional module.

Project Management & Research Methodology
Prepare yourself for the project module, as you learn how to use the work of others to support your own research and choose appropriate strategies to tackle complex projects.

MSc Project
Investigate a favourite topic in real depth and implement your solution, capping your course as you use your newly developed expertise to make something really special.

Course Highlights

Delivery and assessment

The course is delivered through a variety of means, either full-time over one year or part-time over two years, and you will be provided with in-person and video lectures along with remote learning materials. Most of your learning will be done by ‘doing’: you’ll be in our cutting-edge teaching labs where you’ll be using our equipment to get creative and practical. All the assessments for this course are coursework-based: there are no exams. The tasks will reflect the practical nature of the course as you’ll be creating software and applying your skills to develop innovative solutions to real-world problems.

Teaching staff

Our enthusiastic and dedicated staff come from diverse areas of expertise with experience in industry and academia. Our dynamic team is research-active with a range of invaluable knowledge to help you succeed. We pride ourselves on providing a friendly team who will support you however you need it.

Facilities

You will use our cutting-edge computer laboratories containing all the latest equipment throughout your time on the course. These labs are used for practical classes, alongside our lecture theatres and classrooms. You will also have access to incredible specialist software such as GIS and big data to assist with your studies. You can also access them outside of your taught classes, using our equipment to work in your own time.

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Our dynamic course will equip you with the necessary skills for a range of careers in the IT industry. Our graduates have gone onto a variety of roles including application support analysts, software engineers, project managers, data analysts, information managers, applications developers, database administrators, web developers and network engineers.

You can expect to graduate with skills like GIS, big data, data analytics, software development, database development, and programming. Whether pursuing senior IT rules or furthering your studies with a PhD, our graduates finish this course feeling empowered with their developed skills and knowledge.

Possible career paths

Graduates from this course are nicely placed to progress their careers into senior roles in the IT industry. If you are currently working in IT-related areas but a lack of formal computing qualifications is holding you back, this course can help you to break down barriers. A master’s qualification like this also sets you up for a career in academia, preparing you for further post-graduate study in a PhD.

Careers support

You will be supported by our fantastic Careers Team who will always keep you up to date with the latest relevant schemes and opportunities for postgraduate computing and IT students. Our friendly advisors are always on hand to chat, to guide you on your options, and to help you make successful applications for the roles you are interested in. 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

The MSc Computing and Information Systems is designed for graduates with a minimum 2:2 Honours degree or equivalent in a connected subject.

Typically entrants will have graduated in a technical degree – such as Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Information Systems, or Electronic Engineering – and need to further develop their skills in systems development, advanced database systems, and project management.

 

 

 

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£10,800

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

Introducing Calon

We are investing in the future of STEM at USW with an exciting new Computing, Engineering and Technology building at our Pontypridd Campus.


University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.