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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Best universities for computer science

43 replies

Life1sGood · 25/06/2022 08:33

Best universities for computer science in the UK, please - ? :-)
My son likes the idea of Bristol, then the other options he is considering are Manchester and Edinburgh or St Andrews. He doesn't like the idea of Warwick due to remote location. Doesn't like Durham (should we consider it anyway though?..)
In terms of grades definitely hoping for AAA but maybe higher.

OP posts:
resuwen · 28/06/2022 20:16

DS said Manchester has more hardware elements, and Leeds had a better range of modules. I had no idea what they were talking about at that point so IDK. 🤷🏽‍♀️

poetryandwine · 29/06/2022 17:19

‘Hardware’ refers to the physical elements of a computing system. ‘Modules’ is another name for course units. ‘What is your most difficult module this term?’

Pleaseletmeconfirm · 29/06/2022 19:35

I think open days and research are really important. The degrees all vary and you want to make sure you chose the one that suits you best.

One thing that is also extremely important is to remember that things change fast and a degree and Uni that was great one year might have gone very rapidly downhill.

One of my DC did CS followed by a PhD at the same university. During this time they vastly increased the number of CS students without improving the facilities and resources available. Staff numbers were also cut.
The experience that current students have is simply not comparable to the experience my son had when he started .
For example my son had lots of interaction with his tutors during his course, especially when he did his masters dissertation whereas current students don't as the staff simply don't have time.

This is one of the courses mentioned on this thread as being one of the best but the excellent rating are based on historical information and not on what the situation is right now.

CraftyGin · 29/06/2022 20:46

DD is studying Computer Science.

The only open day she went to was Nottingham, and I was very impressed. It has amazing facilities for Artificial Intelligence. I wanted to be 17 again when I went there with her.

The Computing campus is not the main one, although it is very pretty.

Unfortunately, DD was shafted with TAGs, so went to her insurance - Swansea. She is very happy there and is doing the modules she wants to. It is also an amazing place to be along the coast (Mumbles, anyone?). She is also highly involved in the community beyond the university, so I think should come out as a very well rounded individual.

As a girl in CS, the goods are odd, the the odds are good. :)

resuwen · 29/06/2022 22:03

poetryandwine · 29/06/2022 17:19

‘Hardware’ refers to the physical elements of a computing system. ‘Modules’ is another name for course units. ‘What is your most difficult module this term?’

@poetryandwine, yes, sorry, I was being glib. I do actually know what both of those things are. I couldn't describe in detail what the range of modules was - some of that was above my head. But so far as 'hardware' and 'modules' go, I'm all good. 😂

Tree543 · 29/06/2022 22:14

Pleaseletmeconfirm · 29/06/2022 19:35

I think open days and research are really important. The degrees all vary and you want to make sure you chose the one that suits you best.

One thing that is also extremely important is to remember that things change fast and a degree and Uni that was great one year might have gone very rapidly downhill.

One of my DC did CS followed by a PhD at the same university. During this time they vastly increased the number of CS students without improving the facilities and resources available. Staff numbers were also cut.
The experience that current students have is simply not comparable to the experience my son had when he started .
For example my son had lots of interaction with his tutors during his course, especially when he did his masters dissertation whereas current students don't as the staff simply don't have time.

This is one of the courses mentioned on this thread as being one of the best but the excellent rating are based on historical information and not on what the situation is right now.

What Uni was this? We are doing the rounds of open days for CS at the moment and its really hard to see through the marketing spiel as to what they are really like.

resuwen · 29/06/2022 22:23

@Tree543 that is very true. The presentation at Manchester felt very heavily marketed. The presentation at Leeds was a lot more factual and less geared towards a 'sale'.

poetryandwine · 29/06/2022 22:31

Okay, @resuwen . Not everyone will know. Particularly hardware vs software.

@Tree543 and other concerned parents, if your DC is in Y12 you can look at the NSS (National Student Satisfaction) Survey that was taken in the Spring and will be released soon. This is a survey of final year students. The current survey will be skewed by COVID but should nevertheless give a moving picture of the student experience.

poetryandwine · 29/06/2022 23:53

The Survey is supposed to be released on the website of the Office for Students (OfS) on 6 July.

Tree543 · 30/06/2022 10:36

Thanks. I'll look out for that survey.

pinklavenders · 30/06/2022 11:22

we were expressly told that a fourth A Level wouldn't reduce the requirement for 3 A, so further maths not necessarily an advantage.*

It is certainly a huge advantage to have taken Further Maths when studying high level Computer Science.

Even if Unis don't 'require' it Further Maths will increase the chances of an offer in these competitive times

PerpetualOptimist · 30/06/2022 14:03

Following on from @poetryandwine comment about National Student Satisfaction Survey (NSS), I tend to access that data via the DiscoverUni website which pulls that through course by course (it will be interesting to see how soon that updates after the NSS July release). I would say is that be careful about sample sizes (which are shown). Often the sample at an individual course level might only be 15-35 people and so might not be as robustly representative as data based on larger samples.

My work-around is to try and access the department level results (which will give bigger samples by virtue of being a sum of all the relevant courses). In the case of CS, I tend to look to see if there is a joint CS & Maths course and, if so, because the numbers taking the course are often quite low, the data reported is for 'All CS' and, separately, 'All Maths' in many (but not all) of the tabs in Discover Uni.

In my experience, overall satisfaction levels vary more by subject than institution eg Chemistry students typically appear more satisfied than Maths or CS students at the same institution, probably because they get more contact time with staff and have opportunities to practise skills in a very practical setting.

However, specific factors such as satisfaction with the timeliness and helpfulness of feedback can vary widely, within the same subject area, across different unis (as far as I can see in Maths, CS, Chemistry and other STEM subjects I have happened to drill into). This, perhaps, does tell us something about individual institutions' ability/willingness to adapt to the stresses of Covid and it will be interesting to see if low scores for some institutions improve; though I think the grade inflation bulge/overcrowding of 2020 & 2021 may mean it will be quite some time before problems are reversed.

lljkk · 30/06/2022 23:06

CS is extremely competitive. For any of the ones listed he'll need a predicted A star in Maths at the very least

DS has an offer from one of the ones listed, offer is ABB. No A-star in the offer, FM not one of his A-levels.

fwiw, his mates who aspired even higher, were rejected by St. Andrews, Cambridge and ... Bath I think. The lad who was rejected by Cambridge had a fantastic PS, I wonder what they were looking for.

Anyway, I thought Warwick was especially competitive when we looked at their programme.

Now here's a cheat everyone should know: apply for software engineering instead at a Uni that offers CS, too, but says you need higher grades for CS than SE or higher than you're sure you'll get. The 2 courses heavily overlap (maybe identical) in first 1-2 full terms. So if you do well enough, or badly enough, you can probably switch between them after you start, or at least after you get A-level results. The Unis basically told us that when we went to Offer days.

Tree543 · 01/07/2022 07:38

lljkk · 30/06/2022 23:06

CS is extremely competitive. For any of the ones listed he'll need a predicted A star in Maths at the very least

DS has an offer from one of the ones listed, offer is ABB. No A-star in the offer, FM not one of his A-levels.

fwiw, his mates who aspired even higher, were rejected by St. Andrews, Cambridge and ... Bath I think. The lad who was rejected by Cambridge had a fantastic PS, I wonder what they were looking for.

Anyway, I thought Warwick was especially competitive when we looked at their programme.

Now here's a cheat everyone should know: apply for software engineering instead at a Uni that offers CS, too, but says you need higher grades for CS than SE or higher than you're sure you'll get. The 2 courses heavily overlap (maybe identical) in first 1-2 full terms. So if you do well enough, or badly enough, you can probably switch between them after you start, or at least after you get A-level results. The Unis basically told us that when we went to Offer days.

Do you mind me asking - was your son's ABB offer a contextual offer from Bristol? I know Bristol give contextual offers to a very large number of schools.

Thanks for the tip about Software Engineering though will look into that.

StickyFingeredWeeNed · 01/07/2022 07:47

Bizarre! When I did SE, the entry requirements were higher than CS! 🤷‍♀️

anyway, away from the usual suspects - there are a lot of unis doing really interesting courses e.g., Dundee. There’s more to learning than who issues your certificate.

lljkk · 01/07/2022 22:16

@Tree543 : neither contextual nor Bristol.

CraftyGin · 02/07/2022 14:09

StickyFingeredWeeNed · 01/07/2022 07:47

Bizarre! When I did SE, the entry requirements were higher than CS! 🤷‍♀️

anyway, away from the usual suspects - there are a lot of unis doing really interesting courses e.g., Dundee. There’s more to learning than who issues your certificate.

DD's school had a UCAS fair, which Dundee came to (in Surrey). I thought their CS offerings were fantastic. Apparently they are a centre of excellence for Gaming. They are also fee-free for the fourth year.

DD did put them down in her five choices, but not her top two as Gaming wasn't really her thing.

But you really can't go wrong with Dundee. If you are the type of Computer Scientist who lives on caffeine and works overnight, there probably aren't many attractions, but if you like to get out and about, what a fantastic place to be.

compsci · 03/07/2022 01:57

CraftyGin · 02/07/2022 14:09

DD's school had a UCAS fair, which Dundee came to (in Surrey). I thought their CS offerings were fantastic. Apparently they are a centre of excellence for Gaming. They are also fee-free for the fourth year.

DD did put them down in her five choices, but not her top two as Gaming wasn't really her thing.

But you really can't go wrong with Dundee. If you are the type of Computer Scientist who lives on caffeine and works overnight, there probably aren't many attractions, but if you like to get out and about, what a fantastic place to be.

I think you are referring to Abertay University which is in Dundee, as having the specialist gaming course: www.abertay.ac.uk/course-search/?studyLevel=Undergraduate&keywords=games%20design

The University of Dundee is also good for 'Computing Science'
www.dundee.ac.uk/undergraduate/computing-science.

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