What will I study for a computer science degree?

 

What will I study for a computer science degree?

 

The curriculum for a computer science degree varies between institutions, but you can reasonably expect to study core fundamentals that will be similar between institutions. In your first year, you’ll cover areas like:

 

• Computer science foundations
• User and interaction design
• Programming languages
• Mathematics for computer science
• Applications
• Software engineering

 

As you move to your second year the focus shifts to themes such as:

 

• Algorithms and operating systems
• Network architecture
• System architecture
• Programming
• Artificial intelligence
• Computational theory

 

Having advanced to the final or penultimate year of your degree you’ll take on a range of topics, which may also involve specialising, including:

 

• Virtual reality
• Ethics of computing
• Data science
• Multivariate analysis
• Bioinformatics
• Language processing
• Robotics
• Advanced algorithms
• Software engineering

 

If you’ve enrolled for a four-year professional degree, the final year of your study will usually be dedicated to a specific area or topic that will require you to produce a research paper or project for assessment. Sometimes you will be required to interact or work within an industry setting to conduct research.

 

If you move to a master’s degree or PhD qualification you will engage in a combination of research, coursework and practical work. The scope of your research can cover a wide variety of computer science-related areas of enquiry.