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MSc Data Science and Machine Learning with Extended Professional Practice
Why choose Herts?
- Industry Accreditation: Accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS) enabling graduates to register at The Chartered Institute for IT as a chartered IT professional.
- Work Placement Opportunities: This pathway includes a one-year industry placement option, enabling you to gain valuable real-world industry experience alongside your studies.
- Employment Prospects: Graduates in our department are now data scientists, data engineers, and data analytics consultants working for organisations including BT, IBM and Microsoft. 96% of postgraduates are in work or study (Graduate Outcomes, 2025)1
Professional Accreditations
Accredited by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT for the purposes of partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional.
About the course
This course is part of our master's programme in computer science.
The MSc in Data Science and Machine Learning draws on our internationally recognised research in data science and machine learning. It is informed by the expertise of our academic staff and reflects current research and practice in the field. The course develops your understanding of how to obtain data from a range of sources, alongside key methods for data pre-processing, cleaning, analytics, and modelling.
The programme offers three award routes that you can choose to study:
- MSc Data Science and Machine Learning
- MSc Data Science and Machine Learning with Extended Professional Practice
- MSc Data Science and Machine Learning with Advanced Research
Why choose this course?
- Includes a one-year industry placement, enabling you to gain valuable commercial experience and enhance your employability.
- One of a range of advanced courses within our postgraduate master's programme in computer science, this particular course provides you with a specialism in data science and machine learning.
- You will be taught by a highly regarded and long-established computer science department, with 90% of its research ranked as world-leading (Research Excellence Framework, 2021).
- Gain hands-on experience across the full lifecycle of data science and machine learning applications. You will study image processing, time series analysis, and natural language processing, with applications in finance, healthcare, marketing, and both real-time and historical data contexts.
- Develop practical teamwork experience by applying skills in cloud computing, big data, machine learning, and data visualisation using industry-standard tools.
- Build expertise using industry-relevant tools and practices, including system administration, cloud computing, software development, database administration, machine learning, and data visualisation. You will also learn to critically review and evaluate emerging technologies and research, enabling you to adapt to new challenges in data engineering.
- Acquire fundamental mathematical knowledge essential for data science, including linear algebra, set theory, advanced calculus, probability, and statistics. You will learn to apply these foundations as computational techniques to solve real-world problems.
- Explore research-informed topics in neural network theory and design, gaining insight into the technologies underpinning modern tools such as large language models. Teaching draws on the School’s research strengths in biocomputation, evolutionary algorithms, and neural networks.
1from 2022/23 graduates, in employment or further study 15 months after graduation.
What will I study?
This course offers you the opportunity to work for one year in a highly professional and stimulating environment. You will be a full-time employee in a company earning a salary and will learn new skills that can't be taught at University. During the placement, you will be able to gain further insight into industrial practice that you can take forward into your individual project.
Accredited by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT for the purposes of partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional.
Where will I study?
Learn in our new School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science building (SPECS), where you’ll benefit from a range of experiential learning zones.
The computer science laboratories are home to telecommunications, robotics and UX empathy labs, with a variety of research spaces that range from dark rooms to clean rooms, and sample prep labs to calibration and assembly labs.
You will also benefit from our Academic Support Hub, which is aimed at helping you build your employability and academic skills. Plus, have access to industry mentors who will provide you with pastoral support, vocational guidance, and career progression opportunities.
Spectra also provides space to collaborate, with plenty of workshops, social and meeting spaces available. Even better, the building has been designed with the University’s net zero carbon target in mind, and forms part of our plan to replace or upgrade older sites that are energy inefficient.
Further course information
| Programme specifications | |
|---|---|
| MSc Data Science and Machine Learning with Extended Professional Practice - Full Time, Sem A | Download |
| MSc Data Science and Machine Learning with Extended Professional Practice - Full Time, Sem B | Download |
| Additional information | |
|---|---|
Sandwich placement or study abroad year |
Mandatory |
Applications open to international and EU students |
Yes |