STUDY

Postgraduate

MSc Computer Science

Circuit board
Institution code: S82
UCAS code: N/A
Start date: September and January
Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time.
Location: Ipswich
Typical Offer: 2:2 or above in an undergraduate degree.
Institution code: S82
UCAS code: N/A
Start date: September and January
Duration: One year full-time, two years part-time.
Location: Ipswich
Typical Offer: 2:2 or above in an undergraduate degree.

Closed to International applications for January 2025, please see next intake

Overview

This degree is designed for those with previous qualifications or experience in the fields of technology, computing or computer science. If you do not have experience of studying or working in these fields, please consider our MSc in Applied Cyber Security or MSc in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

The MSc Computer Science course is a taught postgraduate course aimed at students with a substantial background in computing who would like to study advanced computing concepts and technologies, covering a wide variety of topics in depth with dedicated experts teaching on each of the pathways. The MSc Computer Science degree provides you with a wealth of opportunities to choose your own path of specialisation into a computing career. The course includes four core modules (Dissertation and Research skills, Topics in Emerging Technologies, DevOps, Managing Projects and Teams) and three optional modules from a range of modules offered in artificial intelligence, cyber security, and software development.

Core modules will cover aspects of computing that are common across all subdomains of computing, whereas optional modules will include a choice of topics helping you specialise in an area of your preference (cyber security, software development, artificial intelligence). The programme is suitable for students from computing backgrounds who are interested in a career orientated towards an industry role, as well as in academia.

 

Course Highlights

  1. A flexible MSc in Computer Science that gives you a choice of pathways or the freedom to create your own. You can choose from one of three pathways in Cyber Security, Software Engineering or Artificial Intelligence.

     

  2. Access to resources from some of the largest tech companies including Amazon Web Services, Juniper, Oracle and our Google Student Club.

     

  3. Access to world-class specialist laboratories at our new state-of-the-art DigiTech Centre located at Adastral Park, home to over 150 high-tech ICT companies and BT’s innovation labs.

     

  4. Opportunities to work on real-world projects in collaboration with industry leaders and experts using the latest technologies.

     

  5. An annual schedule of industry events and hackathons allowing you to apply the knowledge and skills you learn from the course.

     

  6. An opportunity to start your own business with the University of Suffolk’s Innovation Centre (IWIC) and gain guidance from business leaders and academics.

The University of Suffolk is world-class and committed to our region. We are proudly modern and innovative and we believe in transformative education. We are on the rise with a focus on student satisfaction, graduate prospects, spending on academic services and student facilities.

2nd

in the East of England for graduate prospects

(The Complete University Guide 2024)

6th

in the UK for spend on academic services

(The Complete University Guide 2024)

11th

in the UK for social inclusion

(The Good University Guide 2023)

Course Modules

All students are required to take the four mandatory modules, plus three optional modules. Students that wish to meet the requirements for a specialist pathway award need to choose the following options:

Cyber Security: Cryptography and Applications, Cyber Detection and Forensic Investigation, and Network and IoT Security.

Software Engineering: Advanced Software Engineering, HCI and User Experience, and Cloud Computing.

Artificial Intelligence: Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning, Applied AI, and Computer Vision.

Full downloadable information regarding all University of Suffolk courses is available in the Definitive Course Record.

Emerging technologies are innovations regarded as developments helping a field move forward at a competitive advantage. In this module you will look at such innovations within computing that are helping push the field to its boundaries and are contributing to the continuous rapid advancement of technologies and applications. You will have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest advances at the frontiers of computing via a series of invited talks, research activities and self-enquiry. 

Delivering value quickly, securely and reliably to customers is as vital to companies as it is to software consultancies and giant technology firms (such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and Meta). DevOps, which is an evolution of agile development approaches, has become the key industrial practice to achieving these goals.  In this module, you'll gain an understanding of how DevOps combines Development and Operations to achieve a fast flow of planned work into production, where its successful implementation means fewer problems experienced by customers and faster fixes to those problems. 

As you gain more experience as a computing professional, at some point, opportunities will arise to move beyond the role of a competent team player and project contributor. This can involve taking on responsibility for people becoming an engineering manager or can involve taking on leadership of a project or both. The career progression paths are sometimes known as the Manager’s Path and the Staff Engineer’s Path. Both career pathways necessitate a grasp of soft skills and people skills whether to manage staff members reporting to you or influence without authority. In this module, you'll learn how to manage and/or lead technical projects to successful outcomes including skills in estimation, scheduling, risk management and project management.

 

This module provides you with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired so far from your course on a single significant technical project. It will require you to utilise practical, intellectual and decision-making skills in novel situations. The project will provide a mechanism for you to develop and demonstrate your autonomy and self-direction, whilst undertaking a problem-solving approach to a chosen topic. To support you with this, you will be allocated a Project Supervisor who is a member of the Technology Academic Team. You will meet with this supervisor on a regular basis.

Software engineering is the systematic, disciplined and quantifiable approach to the development, operation and maintenance of software. Over time, the scale and complexity of the problems addressed by software have increased with a corresponding increase in the scale and complexity of the software solutions. In this module you'll learn how to address software engineering problems through the use of advanced techniques in requirements engineering, software architectures, designing for specific attributes, advanced coding, and new testing practices.

We design computer systems for the use of and by human beings. Making the use of computers, systems and software a delight rather than a nightmare requires attention to be paid to the user interface and the entire user experience. Different types of user interfaces necessitate different approaches. There is an ethical, legal and business imperative to ensure that computer solutions are accessible to all users, but accessibility has to be designed. This module will include topics such as user-centred design and UX design processes, user behaviour, usability, prototyping and accessibility.

For many organisations, migrating applications and externally facing customer solutions to the cloud (AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud) is part of their trajectory to controlling costs, adapting to change, and delivering services effectively and elastically with a global reach. This module explores cloud ecosystems, the drivers for cloud computing and when it is an appropriate solution. It provides practical skills in how to design and construct cloud solutions to deliver business needs. The resultant architectures will be secure (in terms of access to resources, workloads and applications), resilient (in terms of highly available, loosely coupled and/or fault-tolerant design choices), high-performing and scalable (in storage, compute, database and networking) and cost-optimised (in storage, compute, database and networking) and sustainable (energy efficient).

Cryptography has always been an essential tool in the armoury of a cyber security professional, not least in its obvious use in protecting confidentiality. Over time cryptographic techniques have expanded to include applications to areas such as digital signatures, secure hashing and public key infrastructures. Thus, anybody wishing to pursue cyber security through an industrial or academic pathway will need a strong foundation in cryptographic techniques. This module will provide those foundations, with the right mix of theory and practical work to bring techniques to life. 

This module addresses the growing demand for skilled cyber security and digital forensics professionals. This module is designed to equip students with the necessary knowledge and practical skills to successfully detect, analyse, and respond to cyber security incidents and conduct comprehensive forensic investigations. The module recognises the challenges associated with the increasing volume and diversity of data sources involved in digital forensic investigations and teaches students how to manage and overcome these challenges. By the end of the module, students will have the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute to digital forensic investigations in various contexts, including criminal investigations, civil litigation, and corporate investigations.

This module covers basic and advanced security concepts related to wired/wireless networks and Internet of Things (IoTs). The module is focused mainly on presenting security issues that are common to wired/wireless and IoT deployments and environments, whilst maintaining a high-level view of general security aspects. The approach taken aims at first introducing the ecosystem of network topologies with the intention of producing students who will fully understand the benefits and requirements of the IoT system design cycle, from design and validation to deployment. This module will also cover critical design considerations that have emerged with the evolution of the Internet of Things, such as cybersecurity, coexistence, compliance, and continuity. Furthermore, the module presents common defence techniques and tools used to counter different security threats. Whilst the bulk of the module is aimed at Wired/Wireless Local Area Network, Smart Home (WLAN), other protocols are examined as well.

This module introduces fundamentals of deep learning and how it can solve problems in many areas, such as image classification, filter design and natural language processing. Neural networks are first described and how training can be achieved with backpropagation. Various forms of deep neural networks are developed, such as multilayer perceptrons, convolutional neural networks and deep reinforcement learning. The mathematics of stochastic optimisation is used to interpret and understand the behaviour and training of these networks. Programming approaches are discussed for training and deploying neural networks.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) includes many techniques for classification, analysis and prediction. This module aims to give students an appreciation of the types of application areas and problems that advanced AI techniques can enhance and optimise including artificial intelligence in business and financial applications, artificial intelligence in games, artificial intelligence in health sciences and medicine, and artificial intelligence in industrial control. These techniques also have the advantage of being “explainable AI,” more so than deep learning approaches, and some are long established techniques of “business intelligence.”

Computer vision is the field of computer science that focuses on replicating parts of the complexity of the human vision system and enabling computers to identify and process objects in images and videos in the same way that humans do. Until recently, computer vision only worked in limited capacity. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and innovations in deep learning and neural networks, the field has been able to take great leaps in recent years and has been able to surpass humans in some tasks related to detecting and labelling objects. This module aims to develop an understanding of methods for extracting useful information (eg 3-D structure; object size, motion, shape, location and identity, etc) from images. It will allow you to understand how to construct computer vision systems for robotics, surveillance, medical imaging, and related application areas. 

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

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Course Modules 2024

All students are required to take the four mandatory modules, plus three optional modules. Students that wish to meet the requirements for a specialist pathway award need to choose the following options:

Cyber Security: Cryptography and Applications, Cyber Detection and Forensic Investigation, and Network and IoT Security.

Software Engineering: Advanced Software Engineering, HCI and User Experience, and Cloud Computing.

Artificial Intelligence: Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning, Applied AI, and Computer Vision.

Full downloadable information regarding all University of Suffolk courses is available in the Definitive Course Record.

Emerging technologies are innovations regarded as developments helping a field move forward at a competitive advantage. In this module you will look at such innovations within computing that are helping push the field to its boundaries and are contributing to the continuous rapid advancement of technologies and applications. You will have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest advances at the frontiers of computing via a series of invited talks, research activities and self-enquiry. 

Delivering value quickly, securely and reliably to customers is as vital to companies as it is to software consultancies and giant technology firms (such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and Meta). DevOps, which is an evolution of agile development approaches, has become the key industrial practice to achieving these goals.  In this module, you'll gain an understanding of how DevOps combines Development and Operations to achieve a fast flow of planned work into production, where its successful implementation means fewer problems experienced by customers and faster fixes to those problems. 

As you gain more experience as a computing professional, at some point, opportunities will arise to move beyond the role of a competent team player and project contributor. This can involve taking on responsibility for people becoming an engineering manager or can involve taking on leadership of a project or both. The career progression paths are sometimes known as the Manager’s Path and the Staff Engineer’s Path. Both career pathways necessitate a grasp of soft skills and people skills whether to manage staff members reporting to you or influence without authority. In this module, you'll learn how to manage and/or lead technical projects to successful outcomes including skills in estimation, scheduling, risk management and project management.

 

This module provides you with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired so far from your course on a single significant technical project. It will require you to utilise practical, intellectual and decision-making skills in novel situations. The project will provide a mechanism for you to develop and demonstrate your autonomy and self-direction, whilst undertaking a problem-solving approach to a chosen topic. To support you with this, you will be allocated a Project Supervisor who is a member of the Technology Academic Team. You will meet with this supervisor on a regular basis.

Software engineering is the systematic, disciplined and quantifiable approach to the development, operation and maintenance of software. Over time, the scale and complexity of the problems addressed by software have increased with a corresponding increase in the scale and complexity of the software solutions. In this module you'll learn how to address software engineering problems through the use of advanced techniques in requirements engineering, software architectures, designing for specific attributes, advanced coding, and new testing practices.

We design computer systems for the use of and by human beings. Making the use of computers, systems and software a delight rather than a nightmare requires attention to be paid to the user interface and the entire user experience. Different types of user interfaces necessitate different approaches. There is an ethical, legal and business imperative to ensure that computer solutions are accessible to all users, but accessibility has to be designed. This module will include topics such as user-centred design and UX design processes, user behaviour, usability, prototyping and accessibility.

For many organisations, migrating applications and externally facing customer solutions to the cloud (AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud) is part of their trajectory to controlling costs, adapting to change, and delivering services effectively and elastically with a global reach. This module explores cloud ecosystems, the drivers for cloud computing and when it is an appropriate solution. It provides practical skills in how to design and construct cloud solutions to deliver business needs. The resultant architectures will be secure (in terms of access to resources, workloads and applications), resilient (in terms of highly available, loosely coupled and/or fault-tolerant design choices), high-performing and scalable (in storage, compute, database and networking) and cost-optimised (in storage, compute, database and networking) and sustainable (energy efficient).

Cryptography has always been an essential tool in the armoury of a cyber security professional, not least in its obvious use in protecting confidentiality. Over time cryptographic techniques have expanded to include applications to areas such as digital signatures, secure hashing and public key infrastructures. Thus, anybody wishing to pursue cyber security through an industrial or academic pathway will need a strong foundation in cryptographic techniques. This module will provide those foundations, with the right mix of theory and practical work to bring techniques to life. 

This module addresses the growing demand for skilled cyber security and digital forensics professionals. This module is designed to equip students with the necessary knowledge and practical skills to successfully detect, analyse, and respond to cyber security incidents and conduct comprehensive forensic investigations. The module recognises the challenges associated with the increasing volume and diversity of data sources involved in digital forensic investigations and teaches students how to manage and overcome these challenges. By the end of the module, students will have the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute to digital forensic investigations in various contexts, including criminal investigations, civil litigation, and corporate investigations.

This module covers basic and advanced security concepts related to wired/wireless networks and Internet of Things (IoTs). The module is focused mainly on presenting security issues that are common to wired/wireless and IoT deployments and environments, whilst maintaining a high-level view of general security aspects. The approach taken aims at first introducing the ecosystem of network topologies with the intention of producing students who will fully understand the benefits and requirements of the IoT system design cycle, from design and validation to deployment. This module will also cover critical design considerations that have emerged with the evolution of the Internet of Things, such as cybersecurity, coexistence, compliance, and continuity. Furthermore, the module presents common defence techniques and tools used to counter different security threats. Whilst the bulk of the module is aimed at Wired/Wireless Local Area Network, Smart Home (WLAN), other protocols are examined as well.

This module introduces fundamentals of deep learning and how it can solve problems in many areas, such as image classification, filter design and natural language processing. Neural networks are first described and how training can be achieved with backpropagation. Various forms of deep neural networks are developed, such as multilayer perceptrons, convolutional neural networks and deep reinforcement learning. The mathematics of stochastic optimisation is used to interpret and understand the behaviour and training of these networks. Programming approaches are discussed for training and deploying neural networks.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) includes many techniques for classification, analysis and prediction. This module aims to give students an appreciation of the types of application areas and problems that advanced AI techniques can enhance and optimise including artificial intelligence in business and financial applications, artificial intelligence in games, artificial intelligence in health sciences and medicine, and artificial intelligence in industrial control. These techniques also have the advantage of being “explainable AI,” more so than deep learning approaches, and some are long established techniques of “business intelligence.”

Computer vision is the field of computer science that focuses on replicating parts of the complexity of the human vision system and enabling computers to identify and process objects in images and videos in the same way that humans do. Until recently, computer vision only worked in limited capacity. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and innovations in deep learning and neural networks, the field has been able to take great leaps in recent years and has been able to surpass humans in some tasks related to detecting and labelling objects. This module aims to develop an understanding of methods for extracting useful information (eg 3-D structure; object size, motion, shape, location and identity, etc) from images. It will allow you to understand how to construct computer vision systems for robotics, surveillance, medical imaging, and related application areas. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. Maecenas nibh lorem, rutrum sit amet tellus id, dictum aliquet diam. sustainable and growing business.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus pretium sapien nulla, efficitur sollicitudin purus pretium et. 

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WHY SUFFOLK

2nd in the UK for Career Prospects

WUSCA 2024

3rd in the UK for spend on academic services

Complete University Guide 2025

4th in the UK for Teaching Satisfaction

Guardian University Guide 2024
A student sitting with a laptop
Student at The DigiTech Centre
Three students gaming in classroom
Students at The DigiTech Centre
Two students working at a computer
Students at The DigiTech Centre
Logo of the DigiTech Centre on wall
Inside The DigiTech Centre

Entry Requirements

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Career Opportunities

There is extensive research indicating a shortage of advanced specialist computing graduates in industry - for example demand for workers with specialist data skills like data scientists and data engineers has more than tripled over five years (+231%), according to a labour market analysis commissioned for Dynamics of data science skills by the Royal Society and the (ISC)² Cybersecurity Workforce Study surveyed nearly 12,000 cybersecurity professionals worldwide (2022) and identified a global cybersecurity workforce gap of 3.4 million people, indicating strong career prospects for graduates. Many local businesses with whom we have strong links, such as BT, Juniper, Viavi, Gallagher, MSC, local Councils, NHS and other large local employers have strong and sustainable need for individuals with advanced computing training.

Graduates from this programme can work as expert computing professionals in areas of:

  • Cyber Security

  • Cloud Computing

  • Distributed Systems

  • Network Systems

  • Embedded Systems

  • Artificial Intelligence

  • Machine Learning

  • and more

Your Course Team

Dr Felix Ngobigha

Dr Felix Ngobigha is a Senior Lecturer in Network Engineering and had previously been Scientific Officer with the Centre for Satellite Technology Development.

Felix Ngobigha staff profile photo

Dr Kakia Chatsiou

Kakia is a Lecturer in Computing with expertise in machine learning, information management systems and data science.

Kakia Chatsiou staff profile photo

Hisham Jaward

Hisham is a lecturer in Computing and AI. Work at previous universities in Monash, Bristol and Imperial College, UK, have included developing algorithms.

Hisham Jaward staff profile photo

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Tuition Fee

£9,870

per year
UK Part-time Tuition Fee

£1,097*

per 20 credit module
International Full-time Tuition Fee

£15,300

per year

*Please contact the Student Centre for further details

Further Information

Postgraduate Loans are available for this course, we also offer University of Suffolk Alumni a 25% reduction on fees, find out more below.

Postgraduate Funding Alumni Loyalty Scheme International Students

How to apply

Applying for a postgraduate programme is simple, you can apply using the link below. You can also find out more about what to include on your application and how to contact us for support during the process on the Postgraduate Study link.

Apply Now Postgraduate Study
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