BSc (Hons) Computer Science
Key information
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Typical offer:
Entry requirements -
Fees:
Full details -
UCAS code: G400
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Institute code: H36
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Study abroad option
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Work placement option
Find out more
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Professional accreditations
Accredited by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional (for first year entrants only).
Why choose this course?
- Accredited by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT
- Choose from a wide range of specialist modules, to suit your interests
- Benefit from strong links to business and research
- Flexibility – you may choose this course, which has an emphasis on mainstream computer science and software development, or change to another BSc in our programme
- Be part of a highly regarded well established computer science department with excellent facilities, a strong research background, and links to business and industry
- Prepare yourself for a career in the IT sector through a mix of academic, professional and practical study, with opportunities for industry certifications and a paid placement year. Previous students have worked placements at companies including Microsoft, IBM, and BT
- You will join a lively academic community in the Department of Computer Science at Hertfordshire, one of the largest and most established in the country
- You will be taught by highly qualified staff, most with a PhD or other advanced degree in addition to research, teaching, or professional experience
- The School has an excellent research record and strong links with local and national business, in particular with employers
- Recent graduates from Computer Science have gone on to work at amazing organisations including Sega Europe, Canon UK, and EE
- Computer Science saw 90% of its research ranked as world-leading. (Research Excellence Framework, 2021).
What's the course about?
This course is ideal if you have an interest in technology and software development and how they can be applied to benefit individuals and organisations.
Core topics include foundations of computation, programming, multimedia, networks, databases, operating systems, software engineering and professional issues. In addition, you’ll choose from a wide range of specialist modules to tailor your degree to your interests. As well as gaining an understanding of the wider context in which systems operate, you’ll develop your communication and team-working skills. Thanks to the nature of this degree, you’ll develop the broad skills many employers are looking for while keeping your career options open.
Your main campus is College Lane
This is where the creative arts, science and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.
New School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science building opening in 2024
Learn in our brand-new building, where you’ll experience a range of experiential learning zones.
The computer science labs 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 a Success and Skills Support Unit, 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.
The new building will also provide 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.
What will I study?
Computer Science is both an academic and a practical subject so you will be taught in different ways such as lectures, smaller group tutorials, supervised practicals (labs) and self-study including experiential learning. Assessment is by a mix of in-class tests, exams, and coursework.
The School has well equipped laboratory facilities, with PCs running Windows 10, Linux, and/or virtual machines and a whole range of industry-standard and educational software from Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and others. There are specialist labs for cybersecurity, networking and robotics.
In addition to scheduled classes, about 16 hours per week in Year 1, you will be expected to spend the same amount of time in self-study taking advantage of the University's extensive and up-to-date facilities. These include the Learning Resource Centres (LRCs), open 24x7, with over 1,200 computer workstations and wifi access, Studynet our versatile online study environment accessible on and off campus, and open access to our labs.
Most of our students own their own PC or Mac, but this is not essential since you can use the university facilities. StudyNet allows you to access electronic learning resources, electronic discussion with staff and other students and, for some modules, submit coursework 24/7 from anywhere in the world!
What you will learn
You will be taught the fundamental principles of the subject, which will be illustrated with current real-world technologies and applications wherever possible.
First Year
You will be taught the foundations of Computer Science, including a problem solving approach to programming, modelling and representing data, computer design, networks, operating systems and devices.
Second Year
You will deepen your understanding and develop more advanced skills. You will study contemporary issues in the social, professional, ethical and legal aspects of computing. Modules also cover software development, databases, algorithms and data structures, operating systems and networks. The Second Year gives you the opportunity to choose two additional modules.
Work placement/study abroad year
You may choose to undertake a paid work placement or study abroad at one of our worldwide partner universities.
Final Year
There are core modules on computer security, project planning, the user experience and concurrency, plus two modules of your choice. You will also undertake an individual project, typically an extensive piece of practical and written work.
Student Blogs
Dilek Selin - My typical day
My typical day
A typical day would start off with getting up, catching the University UNO bus and heading towards the forum canteen (they stop serving breakfast around 11:00 but this often changes) to grab a full English breakfast and a coffee at Starbucks (yes, we have a Starbucks on campus!!). During this time, I would regularly check my emails or look at my timetable for the day ahead to find the rooms and prepare my notes for the relevant lectures and tutorials. Generally, after finishing my breakfast I would either grab a meal deal for lunch at the Student union shop since it gets busy towards lunchtime or even because I wouldn’t have time to grab food if I had back to back classes, so having prepped lunch with me or just snacks if I wasn’t feeling too hungry – bringing along food with me was always a must.
Later, if I ever had breaks during my day, I would go to the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) aka the university library. If I didn’t have any upcoming assessments, I would check the active students timetable to see if there were any sports events going on and take part in those sessions where I could participate in sports for free with other students at the uni. After that, I would go to my next classes and then finally when It was home time, I would go back to the bus stop and head home. Since I was a commuting student, by the time I got back home I had enough time to prepare myself for the next day or just wind down from the events of the day. Every student would get at least one day off in the week. For me, in my first year, this was Wednesdays. Including the weekends, I had plenty of time to run errands, book appointments for health checks and even catch up on studies thanks to the extra day off. For the students who lived on campus, they would often take their day’s off as an opportunity to set it as a laundry day!
Student Blogs
Dilek Selin - Things you should know
Things you need to know before studying Computer Science at Herts
It’s okay to not know what you want to do, you don't have to have everything figured out now and as long as you have a direction or a path, stick to it and take new opportunities that present themselves to you, you won't regret taking up on new things and going out of your comfort zone. For me, the best thing I did was take part in a hackathon. The fintech company that was hosting it later offered me my placement, it’s one of those things that you don't expect to happen to you but you sometimes have to make your own luck in these things and research and throw yourself out into the deep end because the challenges we face now are only going to make us stronger for the challenges we are to face ahead.
In my first year everyone was fed in through the same stream, we studied four modules (modules are like subjects), so we took, programming- you get to learn about coding and different programming languages. I learnt about Java but I believe they have introduced Python as well, the second module was Platforms for computing -essentially this module covered the hardware side of computing and we learnt about logic gates which tie in with the content that the electronic engineering students also study, so even though there's a slight overlap it gives us more depth in our subject area and also a chance to explore computing aspects. The third module you'll study at level four (level four being the first year) is models and methods of computing, this was the maths-based module and you'll be exposed to theorems and truth tables and binary, it really will shape your understanding in computing logic.
And finally, Human dimensions of computing, in this module you'll get the chance to work in a group and put your presentation skills to practice, learning about the ethical side of computer science. All four of these modules are further explored in your second-year studies, where the knowledge you gained will be expanded in the sense where one of each of those four modules will link to your second-year modules. Later in your final year, you get to choose a specialised area such as Software Engineering, AI, Networks and Cyber Security. You might be thinking how I know which one to pick, luckily throughout your academic journey, you'll be given tasters to each of the streams. For example, in my second year I took up AI and robotics modules which I really enjoyed- up until then I was convinced, I'd stick with the software engineering stream, but If I had never tried, I would have never known!
Student Blogs
Jack - A day in the life as a computer science student
Hello 👋
As a commuting Computer Science student, I normally leave around an hour before my day’s lectures and practicals start and arrive at the Park and Ride car park before taking the bus to the College Lane campus 🚌
For my second-year timetable, practicals are allocated to Monday and Tuesday, whereas lectures are allocated to Thursday and Friday, with Wednesday being a study day for reading up on the lecture material. During my lectures, I will normally take notes on my laptop so I can read over them later on and in my practicals, I will either use my laptop or the desktops in the computer labs depending on what software we need for the practical.
After finishing the lecture/practical, I normally have lunch either in the Elehouse or the Forum Restaurant with my friends and discuss the day’s work. Finally, once I finish for the day, I return to the Park and Ride and go home where I can review my notes and reinforce what I learned during the day.
Facilities
In the computer labs, the desktops have a range of useful software already installed including IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) such as BlueJ (for Java development), IDLE (for Python development) and other tools such as Logisim (for creating circuits using logic gates and visually how they work) and SQL Developer (for interacting with databases and executing SQL commands). Using these computers, I can complete all the practical work which is set by the lecturers so I can apply the theory from the lectures.
Projects
Currently, in my spare time, I am working on a dungeon crawler game made in Python using the Arcade library (which can be found at https://github.com/Aspect1103/Hades). This has needed various features to get it to work including map generation, player control, enemy AI, collectables and so on.
Recently, I just finished implementing some C++ extensions using the Python C-API to speed up the map generation granting me a five times speed increase and the breadth-first search vector field (which is used for navigating the enemies towards the player) granting me a seventeen times speed increase. My next steps are to further optimise the map generation and vector field and to rewrite the enemy AI making it faster and more intelligent. Creating this project has greatly improved both my project management and problem-solving skills which I can use in my modules this year to complete the tutorial exercises, coursework, and exams.
Alumni Stories
Adem Yetim
Meet Adem. Adem was the first in his family to go to university and made the most out of his time at Herts. He has since become the first Turk to receive fellowships from both the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the British Computer Society.
Read more stories BSc (Hons) Computer Science| Current job role | Chief Solutions Architect and Technologist for Cloud Services at Turkcell |
|---|---|
| Year of graduation | 2018 |
| Course of study | BSc (Hons) Computer Science |
Making the most out of the opportunity
Adem was drawn to Herts because of its strong reputation for technical education and, as he describes, ‘its location in the heart of the UK’s tech industry.’ He was the first in his family to go to university and he was inspired to get the most out of the opportunity.
Adem is now the Chief Solutions Architect and Technologist for Cloud Services at Turkcell, Turkey’s leading telecoms company, and he believes his time at Herts helped shaped his career in several ways. Adem says, ‘The University provided me with a strong foundation in computing and software. It also gave me opportunities to develop my skills in a supportive environment and I could always seek guidance from tutors and advisors whenever I needed to. There was an emphasis on practical, hands-on learning, which was hugely valuable.’
During his studies, Adem took part in many extracurricular activities, which included joining the Hertfordshire Students’ Union’s Computing Society where he helped organise events and coding competitions and attended guest lectures. He was also involved in the Student Industrial Society, which gave him experience in project management and working with a team.
Adem says, ‘Getting involved in extracurricular activities whilst juggling work and my studies required a lot of determination and a commitment to succeed. As a result, I developed crucial time management skills and self-discipline, which have contributed to my career success so far.’
Becoming respected in the industry
Since leaving Herts, Adem’s career has gone from strength to strength. He is highly respected in the industry having received several professional designations, including fellowships for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS). He is the first Turk to receive a fellowship from both IET and BCS.
Prior to joining Turkcell, Adem spent over eight years with IBM as a Solutions Architect and Technical Lead for businesses in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. In that role, he led numerous companies through their digital transformation journeys and gave workshops to global enterprises, helping them reimagine their businesses.
Adem is also keen to give back and mentor other IT professionals, and he serves as a mentor for the BCS Career Mentoring Network. He is also a columnist for BCS and writes pieces for ITNOW magazine.
Alumni Stories
Hafsa Rahman
Meet Hafsa Rahman who has excelled in her career since graduating. She currently works in IT Application and System Support at Optoma Technology.
Read more stories Find out more about this course| Current job role | IT Application and System Support at Optoma Technology |
|---|---|
| Year of graduation | 2018 |
| Course of study | BSc (Hons) Computer Science |
University experience
Hafsa's time as a student at the University helped ready her for employment in many ways. Her Computer Science degree facilitated a broad spectrum of transferable skills, from teamwork and multitasking to time management and communication skills, which Hafsa believes were invaluable when job searching.
She says, 'The University organised job fairs where I had the opportunity to meet many top employers and had the chance to ask them many questions face to face.'
These practicable and social aspects of her studies exposed Hafsa to employers, presenting tangible links and networking opportunities that would be beneficial after graduating. She credits her time at Herts with helping her gain confidence as well as boosting her interview skills.
Hafsa advises current students looking to pursue a similar career path to ensure they thoroughly investigate what jobs are out there before graduating and identify what jobs they would excel in. She recommends looking out for graduate schemes and getting involved in as much professional experience as possible during university. Preparation is key and university study provides the skills, resources and opportunities to best prepare students for entering employment.
The future
Setting her sights on further development, Hafsa is planning to return to the University of Hertfordshire to do a part time MA in Computer Science, allowing her the flexibility to continue working full time.