Course information
UK fee £10,700
International fee £23,650
Taught by Computing
Admissions and course enquiries
0116 252 2265
Submit a course enquiry
Course description
Course description
This MSc is designed for students who wish to supplement their education in a specific set of advanced topics and cutting-edge technologies that they require for their professional lives, or to pursue their studies further to a PhD on a specific topic. It offers a broad menu of modules from which you can construct your own pathway with the advice and assistance of a member of staff.
What's the difference?
The PGDip includes the same modules as the MSc but without the final project.
Duration
The degree takes 12 months starting in September. The 'With Industry' degree takes 24 months starting in September.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
2:1 degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject with a substantial element of Computing. Relevant work experience may also be considered.
English Language Requirements
IELTS 6.0 or equivalent. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. If you do not yet meet our requirements, our English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers a range of courses to help you to improve your English to the necessary standard.
International Qualifications
Find your country in this list to check equivalent qualifications, scholarships and additonal requirements.
Countries listFees and funding
Fees and funding
UK Students
Starting in September 2024 or January 2025
- MSc: £10,700
- PGDip: £8,560
- PGCert: £4,280
- MSc with Industry: £10,700
If you are resident outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland, you will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Did you know you can apply for a Government Postgraduate Loan? Find out if you’re eligible. (MSc or MSc with Industry only; not available for PGDip or PGCert.)
International Students
Starting in September 2024 or January 2025
- MSc: £23,650
- PGDip: £18,920
- PGCert: £9,460
- MSc with Industry: £25,350
An additional fee of £3,510 will be charged if a placement is secured.
You will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
From 2022 onwards, EU nationals will pay the International fee. If you are an EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme, you may qualify for the UK fee (subject to criteria).
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Careers and employability
Careers and employability
All our postgraduate Informatics degrees are available 'with industry': stimulating your creativity and capacity to innovate, and ensuring that you acquire key transferable skills. These courses will allow you to develop into a highly skilled professional, well versed in advanced methods and tools. Colleagues from industry participate directly in the delivery of some of the modules, including hands-on tutorials that allow you to use some of the tools and methodologies that are shaping the software development landscape.
We have an open approach to collaboration with industry. We undertake joint projects, provide consultancy services, and organise events to connect you with potential employers. We also run an Industrial Advisory Board: its members are computer scientists who hold successful careers in industry and who help us ensure that your training is industrially relevant.
Our Careers and Employability Service is here to support you, with advice on interviews, CVs, work experience, volunteering and more. From Freshers’ Week to Graduation and beyond, they are here to help you reach your professional goals.
Course structure
Semester 1
Semester 1
Core module
- Personal and Group Skills - this can be taken in either Semester
Option modules
Choose three option modules (or choose four if you are going to take Personal and Group Skills in Semester 2) from:
- Computational Intelligence and Software Engineering
- Software Measurement and Quality Assurance
- Mobile and Web Applications
- Advanced C++ Programming
- Technology and Innovation Management
- Agile Cloud Automation
- Internet and Cloud Computing
- Interaction Design (ID) and User Experience (UX)
- Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
- Operational Research
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Semester 2
Semester 2
Core module
- Personal and Group Skills - this can be taken in either Semester
Option modules
Choose three option modules (or choose four if you took Personal and Group Skills in Semester 1) from:
- Analysis and Design of Algorithms
- Big Data and Predictive Analytics
- Foundations of Cybersecurity
- Algorithms for Bioinformatics
- Generative Development
- Service-Oriented Architectures
- AI for Space
- Service Design
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Industry Placement (optional)
Industry Placement (optional)
Studying a 'with industry' masters degree is the perfect way for you to enhance your career prospects and deepen your understanding of your specific area of expertise. By experiencing real-world scenarios and applying your skills and knowledge to business challenges, you will gain a unique insight into how your studies can be utilised in industry. This will not only showcase your abilities to future employers, but will also enhance your studies when you return to University to complete your programme.
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Individual Project
Individual Project
Your course will conclude with an Individual Project (after your industry placement, if you have taken one). Using the experience gained during your course/placement, you will choose a challenging problem to work on and explore it by privately studying under the supervision of a member of the academic staff. (Students studying for a PGDip don't complete a project.)
A Selection of Recent MSc Projects
Robust and Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks
Wireless sensor networks are a new technology with a wide range of applications (from environment monitoring to surveillance) but subject to a number of energy constraints, many-to-one flows, and redundant low-rate data. Many routing protocols have been proposed for sensor networks that aim at achieving energy efficiency, but with little or no attention to robustness and fault-tolerance. This project addressed fault tolerance in ad-hoc sensor network routing, namely the design and development of a robust and energy efficient routing protocol that distinguishes between local and large-scale traffic. A new multipath routing protocol was proposed and simulated which follows the 'number of hops' metric and employs a waiting time before transmitting messages to sink.
WSDL/BPEL to SRML Language Transformation
SRML is the Reference Modelling Language of the European project SENSORIA. It provides primitives for modelling and reasoning about business processes in a way that is independent of the languages used for executing them. This project developed a tool for generating SRML models from two specific industry standards: The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which is used for specifying business process based on Web Services, and the Web Services Description Languages (WSDL) – an XML format for describing network services. The encoding provides the means to create high-level declarative descriptions of BPEL/WSDL specifications that can be used for building more complex business process models that can include components specified in other languages.
XML Database for Bibliographic Information
Many people in industry and academia use a document typesetting system called LaTeX. Documents may be published in various formats including reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, authored books, and so on. BibTeX is the tool used by LaTeX for formatting lists of references that are to be incorporated within these documents. Although it is very effective, BibTeX has raised a practical concern due to its low level of abstraction, making it difficult to share bibliographic information among tools or people executing different activities (for instance, between the technical and the marketing staff within a company). In order to address this concern, this project developed an XML-based framework for managing bibliographies.
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Why Leicester?
Most of our members of staff are actively engaged in research and are frequently guests of universities both in the UK and other countries to lecture on their work.
The School has three Staff-Student Committees - for undergraduates, postgraduates and PhDs - consisting of student representatives and members of staff. These provide a forum to discuss general issues and problems, and for staff to give feedback.
Computing at Leicester is a thriving academic community with extensive experience in delivering high quality courses and undertaking pioneering research.
Teaching and learning
Teaching methods include lectures, seminars, self-paced learning and practicals. Assessment is a mix of coursework - computer-based practicals, essays and small group projects - and exams
The compulsory 'Personal and Group Skills' module combines seminars, group discussions and collective essay writing on selected topics, as well as a series of workshops on transferable skills and career planning.
Your project and, where relevant, industry placement will be assessed separately.
Key dates
September 2024 start
- Application deadline: 9 September 2024 (Please note if you require a visa to study you will be required to submit your course application by 26 July 2024)
- Deposit payment deadline: 9 August 2024
- CAS request deadline: 6 September 2024
- 70% tuition payment deadline: 6 September 2024
January 2025 start
We are open for applications. Please contact the Admissions and Applicant Experience Team on +44 (0)116 252 5281 or email study@le.ac.uk for details of key dates and deadlines.
Apply now
Course | Qualification | Duration | Start Dates | Availability |
---|---|---|---|---|
Course Advanced Computer Science | Qualification MSc | Duration 12-16 months full-time | Start Dates September each year, January 2025 | Availability Apply Now |
Course Advanced Computer Science with Industry | Qualification MSc | Duration 24-28 months full-time | Start Dates September each year, January 2025 | Availability Apply Now |
Course Advanced Computer Science | Qualification PGDip | Duration 9-12 months full-time | Start Dates September each year, January 2025 | Availability Apply Now |
Course Advanced Computer Science | Qualification PGCert | Duration 6 months full-time | Start Dates September each year, January 2025 | Availability Apply Now |
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My course has really broadened my knowledge of computer science and technologies. I was able to successfully apply the skills and techniques taught in the course during my placement year.