The Computer Science MSc prepares graduates from any discipline for a career in computing, or a career involving the application of computing within their original professional field. No prior knowledge of computer science is required.
For those with prior knowledge of computer science, see our wide range of advanced computer science courses.
This conversion programme provides you with a broad and balanced introduction to computer science, including the key technologies and skills needed for employment. You can also explore your personal interests through a variety of optional modules.
The programme will equip you for technical roles in leading software houses, advanced technology companies and commercial sectors or for working at the interface with clients as a systems analyst or consultant. Graduates from this programme work across the globe for companies such as IBM, Cisco, Logica/CMG, Pfizer, Reuters, Shell and Zurich Financial.
It's possible to take this course with an optional industrial placement. If you don't meet our entry requirements, you can also access this course with an Internationally Incorporated Master's (IIM).
This degree has been accredited by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
A first or second class honours degree or equivalent in any subject. You should also have mathematical skills equivalent to a grade C or above in GCSE Mathematics.
All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.
Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.
This course requires a Very Good level of English language, equivalent to a high B2 on CEFR.
Details on how to meet this requirement can be found on our English Language requirements webpage.
Examples:
IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component
PTE Academic 67 with a minimum of 59 in each sub-test
A degree from the UK
A degree from a Majority English Speaking Country
We’ve created the most progressive approach to higher education, developing and modernising our curriculum. For 2025 our courses will be designed with you at their heart to deliver a top-class student experience and career outcomes.
The following modules are what students will typically study, but this may change year to year in response to new developments and innovations.
You choose either Object-Oriented Programming or Advanced Java for Programmers depending on your previous programming experience. You then take all remaining compulsory modules and choose one from a list of optional modules. At the end of the course you complete your Project and Dissertation.
Java is one of the most popular programming languages today, with very high demand for people with advanced Java skills in the industry. By joining this module you will be able to expand your programming skills with more advanced Java techniques.
The content is designed for well-qualified computer science students entering the MSc programme regardless of their diverse academic background. You will be equipped with skills and knowledge needed to tackle complex programming challenges and build high-quality Java applications. You will learn essential topics including generics, and advanced features such as reflection, lambda expressions, and high-order programming. By the end of the course, you will be able to confidently build substantial Java applications, communicate technical solutions, and continue their development in the ever-evolving field of Java programming.
Object-oriented programming is one of the most fundamental programming paradigms in Computer Science. Object-oriented programming languages are widely used within the software development industry. Focusing predominantly on the Java programming language, you will start by learning the fundamentals of programming, such as variables, statements and methods; and develop your knowledge and skills with a deep understanding of object orientation in Java, including advanced concepts such as objects and classes, inheritance and encapsulation. You fill follow a course that combines lectures with practical work, aiming to combine advanced theoretical knowledge of object-oriented programming with practical skills. Your skills and knowledge will be developed and applied over a series of practical classes and practical coursework.
Get ready to supercharge your programming skills! This module is your gateway to mastering foundational coding techniques through hands-on problem-solving. You’ll dive into the world of algorithms, learning how to design them, prove they’re correct, and optimize their performance. We'll explore essential data structures like arrays, lists, and trees, and tackle powerful techniques in searching, sorting, recursion, and divide-and-conquer.
Plus, you'll unlock the logic behind programming by exploring propositional and predicate logic—tools that will give you a new level of insight into how programs work. By the end of this module, you’ll have the skills to solve complex problems and write efficient, reliable code that can take on real-world challenges.
Ever wonder what really happens when you run a computer program? Welcome to the world of computer hardware, and how software actually controls it. You will receive a comprehensive overview from the lowest level of abstractions in hardware to the highest level of abstractions of modern programming languages. You will explore the design of instruction set architectures, memory hierarchy, and data paths. Computer architecture focuses on the high-level design principles and trade-offs that govern the organization of these components, such as pipelining, caching, and parallelism. Examples of topics that may be covered include logic circuits, machine language, processors, memory management, processes, concurrency, file systems, and operating systems. Throughout, special attention is paid to abstraction, performance, and other quality requirements. Understanding computer systems is essential for computer scientists, IT professionals, architects, and programmers to design, build, and optimise efficient and reliable computing systems for various applications and domains.
Web-based information systems form the heart of e-commerce. In today's digital landscape, they are also increasingly the way businesses handle all their information needs. Building such systems requires an understanding of up-to-date tools and technologies such as web page creation, client-side programming, server-side programming and databases; it also calls for an understanding of how to design systems that genuinely meet user and business needs. This module will empower you with the essential skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the dynamic domain of e-business systems and in today's digital economy. You will learn the foundations for client-side and server-side programming as well as database design and implementation, critical knowledge on e-business systems and their properties. As technology continues to evolve, we will keep you ahead of the curve by exploring novel and emerging technologies in the e-commerce landscape.
Software is everywhere, and its development should be tailored according to its requirements. This module will cover principles of software engineering following agile principles for guiding its development. You will investigate software modelling as means to understand and manage software complexity. As an integral part of software development, you will learn principles of planning, cost and time estimation, quality, and risk evaluation. You will also learn why software should be developed considering social, professional, and ethical principles, including security and privacy principles. You will work with your peers to develop or evolve a software system. You will apply the principles of agile methodology in your project, manage your team effectively, organise your code using version control, and resolve problems via issue tracking. You will identify risks for software projects and follow the principles for developing software with the highest professional standards.
This module will guide you through the different stages of working on an exciting computer science project. World-leading experts in the field will support you along the way by providing supervision and monitoring of your weekly activities. With computer systems becoming more crucial in everyday life, you’ll have the opportunity to conceptualise, design, develop, and test your own large system capable of solving the identified challenges. Alternatively, you will explore and critically evaluate state of the art literature, identify relevant research methodologies to advance topics in computer science, carry out independent investigations, and make an impact in the research community. You’ll be empowered to explore different skills learned throughout your degree programme and apply them in the specific domain identified for your master’s project. Finally, you will reflect on your project journey throughout the writing of a well-organised dissertation demonstrating your individual reflection and achieved learning.
The increasing reliance on the internet, electronic devices, mobile apps and online resources greatly improve the quality of our daily lives but also escalate the volume of our digital fingerprints. This means that, nowadays, it is impossible to plan or commit an unlawful activity without leaving digital traces scattered across local or remote storage and cyber spaces. Do you want to learn digital forensic skills that contribute to the investigation of suspected wrongdoing?
This module focuses on computer forensics and multimedia forensics, and introduces concepts and best practices relevant to uncover digital evidence on an investigative setting. It introduces tools and techniques for the collection, interpretation and analysis of digital evidence supporting informed reporting of findings. You will gain hands-on experience with investigative tasks and will have the opportunity to apply different tools and techniques to answer investigative questions related, for example, to ‘what’ happened, where, when, why, who and how.
Upon completion of the module, you will have a theoretical and practical appreciation of what ‘digital forensics’ entail.
Did you know that currently a majority of cyber security incidents involve one or more human elements (be it social engineering attacks, human errors, or misuse)? Today, it is clearer than ever that creating secure systems requires an appreciation of the underlying technology, but it also requires us to develop a solid grasp of people’s psychology – the ‘why’ people do, the ‘what’ they do, and the ‘how’ we can help them to adopt better security behaviours and practices. You’ll learn about human factors, usable security, security awareness, education and culture, all within the context of today’s organisations and social environments. With the knowledge gained, you’ll be able to think of technology systems more critically and in a socio-technical way which appreciates the various nuances of cyber security.
We will give you the statistical and computing skills you need to succeed in the rest of the course. Even if you have limited mathematical skills or no computer programming knowledge we will guide you to a level where you can apply advanced data science methods effectively. This module includes subjects such as introductory probability where you’ll learn how likely you are to win at a game of cards; introductory statistics such as testing a hypothesis in a clinical trial; and programming skills in a language such as R, including data visualisation. We will then move on to more advanced topics such as linear regression, which allows you to make predictions using multiple variables, and skills that will increase your employability, such as report writing, production of slides using appropriate software, and presentation skills. You will also find out about the important ethical implications of working as a data scientist.
Assessment is through a mixture of written examinations and coursework, the relative weights of which vary according to the nature of the module. The final project is assessed by a dissertation.
For course aims and learning outcomes please see the course specification.
While studying on a taught Master’s, you can gain work experience through our industrial placement scheme. We have strong links with industry including IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
The is a large range of equipment available, providing both UNIX (TM) and PC-based systems and a cluster facility consisting of 30 Linux-based PCs for parallel computation. New resources include a multi-core enterprise server with 128 hardware threads and a virtual machine server that supports computer security experiments.
All students benefit from a well-stocked library, giving access to e-books and online journals as well as books, and a high bandwidth internet gateway. The School and its research groups hold a series of regular seminars presented by staff as well as by visiting speakers and our students are welcome to attend.
Our Makerspace offers exciting teaching and collaboration opportunities. Among other equipment, it contains milling machines, a 3D printer, laser cutter and extensive space for building and making digital artefacts.
Our taught postgraduate students enjoy a high level of access to academic staff and have their own dedicated laboratory and study room. Students whose course includes an industrial placement are supported by a dedicated team which helps them gain a suitable position and provides support throughout the placement.
Staff and research students publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to: Journal of Artificial Evolution and Applications; International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking; Journal of Visual Languages and Computing; Journal in Computer Virology.
Strong links with industry underpin all our work, notably with Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Agilent Technologies, Erlang Solutions, Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Ericsson and Nexor.
All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability.
Our graduates have gone on to work in:
Recent graduates have gone on to develop successful careers at leading companies such as:
The University has a friendly Careers and Employability Service, which can give you advice on how to:
You can gain practical work experience as part of your degree through our industrial placements scheme - we have a dedicated Placement Team who can give advice and guidance. All our placements are in paid roles.
In previous years, students have worked at a wide range of large and small organisations, including well-known names such as:
You can take your work placement abroad. Previous destinations include Hong Kong and the US.
An industrial placement gives you invaluable workplace experience, which greatly enhances your employment prospects and also helps put your academic learning into a real-world context.
The 2025/26 annual tuition fees for this course are:
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
Tuition fees may be increased in the second and subsequent years of your course. Detailed information on possible future increases in tuition fees is contained in the Tuition Fees Increase Policy. If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
Tuition fees may be increased in the second and subsequent years of your course. Detailed information on possible future increases in tuition fees is contained in the Tuition Fees Increase Policy. If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
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Next steps
Learn more about the application process or begin your application by clicking on a link below.
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