Course Overview

Data is one of the 21st century’s most valuable commodities. Understanding how to analyse, validate and interpret it to inform decision making are critical skills in almost every walk of life.

Whether you want to enhance your existing knowledge or change career, this master’s-level conversion course offers a fast track to career success by teaching you how to extract value from data in domains of interest to you.

The power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science can be seen in almost every walk of life and at every level of society, from improving diagnosis and treatment in healthcare to offering new creative tools for artists. Nationally, there is a recognised shortage of qualified data practitioners to meet the growing needs of employers, and this demand extends across business sectors.

Our students come from various academic and professional backgrounds, including English Literature, Maths, Music, Politics, Psychology, Physic, Marketing, Biology, Computer Science and more. Through lectures, hands-on workshops and a self-led research project, you will widen your existing skills and knowledge with current data science and AI techniques to help you launch a career in these rapidly-growing fields.

You will learn Python coding, so experience in programming is not required.

Plus, you'll be based in our £4.5 million Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Modelling (DAIM) building, which houses the most significant computational teaching space on campus.

Using these brand-new facilities, you’ll cover topics such as programming, statistics, machine learning, big data, data visualisation, computer vision and the ethical and legal responsibilities of using data. Education is delivered online and on-campus through a series of bespoke taught modules. In the third semester, you will do an academic dissertation, which can be a project linked to industry, where you will apply your knowledge to real-world problems using data science and AI solutions. We have teamed up with a range of employers who may be able to offer project opportunities to students.

At the end of the course, graduates will have developed key competencies in AI and data science, including programming, data visualisation, problem-solving and data interpretation.

You can apply AI and data science techniques to real-world problems; critically evaluate AI and data science methodologies; plan, design, and carry out empirical research; and interpret, present and communicate the outcomes of data science and AI solutions.

The course combines expertise from Departments across the Faculty of Science and Engineering, including Computer Science, Physics and Mathematics. You’ll have access to VIPER – one of the most powerful high-performance computers in the Higher Education sector. Our Computer Science research is ranked 5th in the UK for impact.

General Eligibility

As a conversion MSc, this programme has been specifically designed to be accessible to students with various non-computational backgrounds.

A minimum 2.1 undergraduate honours degree is required. As the course has a robust numerical component, applicants must have studied a class or module in mathematics (pure or applied), statistics, computing, or data analysis as part of their degree programme.

Part Time Work Details

20 hours of work permit weekly for international students.

Language Requirement

• IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.