Who is it for?
This programme is for students who have a numerate first degree or can demonstrate numerate skills. Students are often at the early stages of their careers in diverse professions including economics, statistics and computer science.
Students will have a curiosity about data, and will want to learn new techniques to boost their career and be part of exciting current industry developments. The MSc in Data Science includes some complex programming tasks because of the applied nature of the course, so many students have a mathematics or statistics background and enjoy working with algorithms.
Objectives
The demand for data scientists in the UK has grown more than ten-fold in the past five years *. The amount of data in the world is growing exponentially. From analysing tyre performance to detecting problem gamblers, wherever data exists, there are opportunities to apply it.
City’s MSc Data Science programme covers the intersection of computer science and statistics, machine learning and practical applications. We explore areas such as visualisation because we believe that data science is about generating insight into data as well as its communication in practice.
The programme focuses on machine learning as the most exciting technology for data and we have learned from our own graduates that this is of high value when it comes to employment within the field. At City, we have excellent expertise in machine learning and the facilities students need to learn the technical aspects of data analysis. We also have a world-leading centre for data visualisation, where students get exposed to the latest developments on presenting and communicating their results – a highly sought after skill.
*From IT jobs watch
“What is happening with data? Who is in control of it? Who owns data? I don’t think we have even started to fully understand these questions. This is part of what we cover on this programme: the bottom line is with great power comes great responsibility.”
Senior lecturer, Dr Tillman Weyde
Accreditation
Accredited by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT for the purposes of partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional and partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.
Entry requirements
Applicants should hold an upper second-class honours degree or the equivalent from an international institution in computing, engineering, physics or mathematics, or in business, economics, psychology or health, with a demonstrable mathematical aptitude and basic programming experience, or a lower second-class honours degree (or international equivalent) with a demonstrable mathematical aptitude and relevant work experience.
Other suitable qualifications
If you do not qualify for direct entry, you may wish to follow a Graduate Diploma pathway to the programme through one of our partners.
English requirements
For overseas students whose first language is not English, the following qualification is required:
- IELTS: 6.5 (minimum of 6.0 in all four components)
Due to changes in the UKVI's list of SELTs we are no longer able to accept TOEFL as evidence of English language for students who require a CAS as of April 2014.