© Teesside University: Postgraduate course
Computing MSc
The flexibility this course offers means the direction you take is entirely up to you. You can design your
programme from a huge range of subjects. Choose those that are most relevant to you and build a bespoke
course that enhances your career opportunities and progression.
Full-time and Part-time Computing & Cyber
Security
Apply now to start in September or January. Apply now
Full-time Part-time
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© Teesside University: Postgraduate course
Full-time Part-time
2024-25 entry 2024-25 entry
Fee for UK Fee for UK applicants
£7,365 a year £820 for each 20 credits
£4,770 a year with advanced practice More details about our fees
More details about our fees
2025-26 entry
Fee for international applicants
Fee for UK applicants
£17,000 a year
£930 for each 20 credits
£10,000 a year with advanced practice
More details about our fees
More details about our fees for international
applicants Length: 2 years
Start date: January or September
2025-26 entry Semester dates
Fee for UK applicants Apply now (part-time)
£8,365 a year
£5,417.50 a year with advanced practice
More details about our fees
Fee for international applicants
£17,000 a year
£10,000 a year with advanced practice
More details about our fees for international
applicants
Length: within 1 year (September start),
16 months (January start) or 2 years with
advanced practice (September or January
start)
Start date: September or January
Semester dates
Apply now (full-time)
Get in touch
UK students
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01642 738801
Online chat (general enquiries)
International students
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© Teesside University: Postgraduate course
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0) 1642 738900
More international contacts
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© Teesside University: Postgraduate course
Course overview
You are prepared for a wide range of careers in the computing industry. It is ideal if you already work in the
field of computing and want to develop new skills, and equally relevant if you are a recent graduate wanting to
develop the technical knowledge and understanding to progress to your chosen career. There are three
routes you can choose from to gain an MSc Computing:
full-time - 2 years with advanced practice (September and January start)
full-time - 1 year (September start) or 16 months (January start)
part-time - 2 years.
Advanced practiceThere are a number of internship options, including:Vocational – spend one semester
working full-time in industry or on placement in the University. We have close links with a range of national
and international companies who will offer you the chance to develop your knowledge and professional skills
in the workplace through an internship. Although we cannot guarantee internships, we will provide you with
practical support and advice on how to find and secure your own internship position. A vocational internship is
a great way to gain work experience and give your CV a competitive edge.Research – develop your research
and academic skills by undertaking a research internship within the University. Experience working as part of
a research team in an academic setting. Ideal for those who are interested in a career in research or
academia.
Download pdf Order prospectus
Course details
Course structure
Core module
Computing Masters Project
You undertake a major, in-depth, individual study in an aspect of your course. Normally computing master’s
projects are drawn from commercial, industrial or research-based problem areas. The project involves you in
researching and investigating aspects of your area of study and then producing a major deliverable, for
example software package or tool, design, web-site and research findings. You also critically evaluate your
major deliverable, including obtaining third party evaluation where appropriate.
The major deliverable(s) are presented via a poster display, and also via a product demonstration or a
conference-type presentation of the research and findings. The research, project process and evaluation is
reported via a paper in the style of a specified academic conference or journal paper. The written report, the
major deliverable and your presentation of the product are assessed.
The project management process affords supported opportunities for goal setting, reflection and critical
evaluation of achievement.
Research Methods
You develop the knowledge and skills to understand the research process in the field of computing and gain
the necessary skills to undertake your masters project. You learn how to evaluate previous academic
research and generate evidence material to justify your research. You learn different methods of data
generation and develop an understanding of how these methods fit into your primary research, development
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© Teesside University: Postgraduate course
lifecycle, evaluation of the end user experience, use of academic research literature and research ethics.
and five optional modules
Agile Development
You gain experience of application development utilising an agile development approach. You also take
responsibility for determining project aims, objectives, roles, tasks, deliverables, schedules and
documentation.
By learning agile principles and applying a specific agile approach (eg SCRUM) in a live simulation of the
methodology, the module will help you to prepare for contemporary practice in industry, developing both
knowledge and skills in the application of agile principles.
Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Applications
You gain a deep insight into the business applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science (DA).
You explore a range of AI and DS applications such as chatbots, virtual assistants, medical diagnosis,
biometric recognition, personalisation, fraud detection and autonomous machines, and analyse both the risks
and opportunities of applying AI and DS techniques in these areas.
Artificial Intelligence Foundations
You gain the foundational knowledge to study a wide range of AI applications and solutions, and are
introduced to logic-based knowledge representation, reasoning, problem solving and algorithms, planning
and AI applications.
Big Data and Business Intelligence
You develop your ability to design and implement database, big data and analytics applications to meet
business needs. A case study is used to follow the system development lifecycle. You develop a plausible
application from inception to implementation for a real-world scenario.
You investigate the issues and technologies associated with implementing and supporting large scale
databases and the services that are needed to maintain and access a repository of data. Investigations are
undertaken in a number of areas including big data, data warehouses, integrating legacy data, data
management and approaches that support the modelling and visualisation of data for a range of use views.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Blockchain technology is disrupting the financial industry and has many applications in payments, insurance,
lending, supply chain, settlement of securities transactions and contract execution. You explore what a
blockchain is and how you can create one with simple Python codes. You are introduced to cryptocurrencies
and the technical concepts related to financial applications of blockchain.
You study topics related to public and private blockchains, cryptography, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin
and Ether, smart contracts and applications.
Cyber Risk and Vulnerability Management
You explore cyber security risk assessment and guidance models, practices, tools and techniques to address
threats or vulnerabilities. You also look at how to identify common threats and vulnerabilities using
appropriate tools and techniques.
Data Visualisation
The field of information visualisation has expanded rapidly with many designers generating new forms of
charts through which to view quantitative data. This module explores the range of charts available from the
traditional such as bar charts and pie charts, to the more novel such as stream graphs, tree maps, sunbursts,
and force diagrams, and examines their mathematical properties.
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By accurately representing quantitative data using appropriate charts, the intended audience can make their
own interpretations of the data and identify emerging patterns and themes that are more readily recognisable
in chart form than in the form of raw data.
Deep Learning
Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that uses artificial neural networks models with many layers to
solve problems in computer vision, speech recognition, natural language process and language translation.
The main advantage of deep learning is the ability to learn representations from raw data such as images or
text without the need to hand engineer features that represent the input for the model and deliver very high
accuracy. Deep learning is now the main technology behind many breakthroughs in object and voice
recognition, Google Deep Mind AlphaGo, Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon) and Face recognition (Facebook).
This module covers various deep learning methods and their practical applications.
Hacking the Human
You explore what is increasingly recognised as one of the most important areas and greatest threats of
cybersecurity - the human being. Criminals are increasingly targeting people as an easy way to access a
computer system, this is summed up in a famous quote by a well-known writer on cybersecurity, Bruce
Schneier ‘Only amateurs attack machines; professionals target people’.
You explore what these types of cybersecurity threats are and what steps individuals and organisations can
take to mitigate against them.
Assessment is a case study, exploring cybersecurity event involving issues of human behaviour. You produce
a 4000 - 5000 word report identifying and discussing these issues and proposing some solutions for future
prevention.
Intelligent Decision Support Systems
You focus on the fundamentals of tackling decisions of increasing difficulty in technology, health and
business decision, and gain an understanding about the need for, and the effectiveness of, computerised
methods for supporting decisions. This includes classifications, data mining and knowledge
management-based decision methods with examples of various application domains.
You will be provided with the opportunity to implement simple computerised decision support systems
applied to specific real-life problems. The process and practices develop your ability to build simple versions
of decision support systems and familiarity with full-scale versions of decision support systems for various
application domains.
Interactive Visualisation
Dynamic, interactive visualisations enable the reader to explore the data for themselves through a variety of
perspectives. Static visualisations are excellent for print medium but are restricted to showing a single
perspective and do not handle multidimensional datasets well. Using an interactive graphic the reader can
zoom in on sections of the data which are of interest, explore more than one dimension at a time, and sort and
filter to discover new patterns and themes within the data. Particularly useful is the ability to provide a
macro/micro view of the same data, ie a big picture view of the full dataset from which the reader can then
‘drill down’ into the lower level detail.
This module uses the javascript library for Data-Driven Documents (D3js) for creating animated, dynamic
graphics for the web, and looks at other alternatives available.
IoT Security
There has been a rapid growth within the field of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is applied in environmental
monitoring, smart homes, industrial controls and digital cities. IoT incorporates various techniques, including
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wireless sensor networks, embedded systems, ubiquitous computing, and machine learning that involve
unique IoT devices with a distinct set of security risks.
You explore the important concepts in IoT - the use of Internet technologies to access and interact with
objects in the physical world. You also develop the capability to understand potential security risks and
produce security architecture of IoT systems. This incudes IoT architecture, IoT operating systems and
platforms, low power communications, IoT data analysis, IoT security and identity recognition. You also gain
experience of practical skills required for the programming of IoT devices.
Assessment is through 100% continuous assessment where you build a project, which addresses challenges
in the IoT security area.
IT Ethics and Law
You explore the key legal issues to consider if you are anticipating a career in the IT industry. Key topics
include introduction to the English legal system, intellectual property rights, computer crime, computer
contracts and liability, privacy and data protection. You apply the legal principles studied to realistic scenarios
and case studies from the real-world.
You are assessed through a continuous assessment which explores a current IT or computing issue from a
legal and ethical point of view in the form of a mini investigative report.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is a subfield of computer science concerned with computational techniques rather than
performing explicit programmed instructions. You build a model from a task based on observations in order to
make predictions about unseen data. Such techniques are useful when the desired output is known but an
algorithm is unknown, or when a system needs to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.
You explore statistics and probability theory as the fundamental task is to make inferences from data
samples. The contribution from other areas of computer science is also essential for efficient task
representation, learning algorithms, and inferences procedures. You gain exposure to a breadth of tasks and
techniques in machine learning.
Assessment is an in course assessment (100%).
Managing Projects with PRINCE2®
This module explores in detail an established and widely recognised governance standard method called
PRINCE2®. Students will work on simulated project brief in order to build their understanding and critically
review the governance methodology.
The module will focus on the structure, processes, documentation, terminology but also tailoring of the
governance method in order to plan for a particular project.
The students will be assessed by two in-course assessment elements (60% and 40%) requiring them to work
as part of a team.
PRINCE2® is a registered trademark of AXELOS limited
Mobile App Development
You develop android apps for smartphone and tablet devices to a professional standard. You explore the
industry-standard development processes and tools used to build today’s mobile apps. You are also informed
by current industry practice, to plan and execute a successful software development project.
Assessment is an in-course assignment. You design, plan and build a mobile app for a smartphone or tablet
device using industry approaches. Your artefacts and decisions are assessed by a presentation with
supporting materials.
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Mobile Systems and Cyber Security
You gain a thorough understanding of the concepts and technologies used in modern mobile devices such as
phones, PDAs and laptops. You learn about the hardware used by mobile devices and the networking
technologies that allow them to communicate with each other and the outside world. You also explore data
compression techniques and security. You attend a series of lectures, tutorials and seminars.
You are assessed by a 100% ICA. You work individually researching an agreed topic and produce a research
report (4,000 words).
Network and Systems Security
You cover theoretical concepts including cryptography and cyber security models alongside the practical
issues of cyber attacks and countermeasures. You study topics in access control, symmetric and public key
cryptography protocols, digital signatures, authentication protocols, wireless network and security, firewall,
network security attacks, penetration testing, intrusion detection and access control lists.
Object Oriented Programming
You are given an intensive introduction to programming assuming little, if any, previous experience. You
cover the principles of object oriented programming and event driven GUI (graphical user interfaces) systems
using the Java Language. You are introduced to the fundamental skills required for mobile app and pattern
driven development. Topics covered include:
• Object oriented concepts: classes, objects, methods, inheritance, polymorphism.
• Event handling and elements of the Swing GUI API.
• Software development using a source code editor and an IDE.
• Software design techniques, problem solving and algorithm development.
• Software documentation.
• Software testing and evaluation techniques.
•
You are assessed by individual course work that requires you to produce a portfolio of practical and reflective
work.
Project Management Philosophies and Tools
Contemporary project management is an evolving and extensive discipline that has grown substantially to
meet the needs of modern project management demands. This module cultivates detailed and critical
awareness of this domain and its expanding range of philosophies, tools and frameworks.
The purpose of this module is to introduce students to the expanding discipline of project management and
familiarise them with modern and contemporary project management modalities and the importance of
effective project management to organisational functioning, enterprise growth and development.
Risk Management in Projects
We provide you with an advanced level of study in risk management in projects. You explore a range of tools
and techniques used in risk identification, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, risk-planning responses,
PERT and risk monitoring. You learn about financial risk, project-appraisal methods and the application of a
decision tree within a project.
You gain awareness of probability theory that represents the corner stone of risk management. Invited
speakers from the industry give an overview of risk management in different projects; for example IT, finance,
construction, and oil and gas. You work in groups on project case studies which apply risk management
theory. In addition, you gain hands-on experience in applying the @RISK© tool to a variety of scenarios of
risk factors. You develop a deep understanding of the systematic process of risk management and
application of @RISK© software.
Software for Digital Innovation
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You gain an introduction to the Python programming language and its application to solving problems in
digital innovation. This involves the principles of programming, the syntax and structure of Python, its
relevant libraries and modules, and how it is incorporated in existing software tools. You form a solid
foundation of producing software solutions to real-world problems.
Statistical Methods for Data Analytics
You develop necessary knowledge and practical understanding of the main statistical techniques. You
explore quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, reflecting scientific and social science methods.
You focus on correlation testing, regression, data categories, normalization - the tools needed, rather than
the philosophical approaches. You understand how to apply valid techniques and interpret the results in
preparation for experimental work.
Your assessment is a single ICA based around a number of case studies that require you to identify the
correct data analysis and modelling processes.
Advanced practice (2 year full-time MSc only)
Internship
The internship options are:
Vocational: spend one semester working full-time in industry or on placement in the University. We have
close links with a range of national and international companies who could offer you the chance to develop
your knowledge and professional skills in the workplace through an internship. Although we cannot
guarantee internships, we will provide you with practical support and advice on how to find and secure your
own internship position. A vocational internship is a great way to gain work experience and give your CV a
competitive edge.
Research: develop your research and academic skills by undertaking a research internship within the
University. Experience working as part of a research team in an academic setting. Ideal for those who are
interested in a career in research or academia.
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
Lectures are used to introduce and develop material, with research issues and recent developments included
as appropriate. Subjects are explored in depth via tutor-led seminars, practical workshops, individual or group
research and contribution to discussion forums.
Lectures, discussion seminars and online discussions are used to develop intellectual skills. Directed self
study and research are used in many modules to develop your critical evaluation skills.
Lectures, including presentations from guest external practitioners, are used to deliver relevant
subject-specific content. Practical work includes case studies from real scenarios and the development of
significant computer applications.
Development of transferable skills, self-managed learning and professional development are core themes
throughout the programme. Methods include group-based activities and discussions, self-directed learning
and research, and tutor-led workshops.
How you are assessed
The programme assessment strategy has been designed to assess your subject specific knowledge,
cognitive and intellectual skills and transferable skills applicable to the workplace. The strategy ensures that
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cognitive and intellectual skills and transferable skills applicable to the workplace. The strategy ensures that
you are provided with formative assessment opportunities throughout the programme which support your
summative assessments. The assessments will include assignments, tests, case studies, presentations,
research proposal and literature review, and the production of a dissertation. The assessments may include
individual or group essays or reports. The assessment criteria, where appropriate, will include assessment of
presentation skills and report writing.
Entry requirements
You will normally have a first degree in related discipline (2.2 minimum) or relevant experience or equivalent
qualifications. Acceptable subjects include artificial intelligence, computer forensics, computer science,
computing, information technology, artificial intelligence, data science, computer forensics and digital
forensics.
In addition, international students will require IELTS 6.0 or equivalent.
For general information please see our overview of entry requirements
International applicants can find out what qualifications they need by visiting Your Country
Employability
Career opportunities
From the beginning of your programme, we prepare you for a career in industry. In addition to your taught
classes, we create opportunities for you to meet and network with our industry partners through events such
as our ExpoSeries, which showcases student work to industry. ExpoTees is the pinnacle of the ExpoSeries
with over 100 businesses from across the UK coming to the campus to meet our exceptional students, with a
view to recruitment.
Information for international applicants
Qualifications
International applicants - find out what qualifications you need by selecting your country below.
Select your country:
Search Country Choose
Useful information
Visit our international pages for useful information for non-UK students and applicants.
Talk to us
Talk to an international student enrolment adviser
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