- MSc Admissions

The MSc in Software Engineering is a one-year course covering traditional and contemporary approaches to software development from formal methods to object-oriented programming, with the opportunity to study specialist subjects such as Computer Vision, Cryptography, Distributed Computing Systems, Critical Systems, E-Business, Intelligent Agents, Model-checking, Multimedia and Web-Based Systems, taught by leading experts in these areas.

Students will enhance their skills in software modelling, design, development, and testing. The major project and dissertation provide an opportunity to integrate the material covered in the taught modules. Students with this qualification typically go on to work in software engineering research or advanced software development projects.

Further information:

Entry requirements
It is expected that you have taken a first degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related subject. In particular you should check that you have covered the core subjects listed in the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curriculum.

This course assumes you have programming experience, and are familiar with the Java programming language. You can learn about this language, for example, by following Sun’s Java Tutorial, which is available on-line and also in book form.

It is also assumed that you are already familiar with modern software development techniques, and in particular the UML notation. This is covered by many good textbooks, for example UML Distilled, by Martin Fowler, from Addison Wesley.

Finally, you should familiarise yourself with a formal method such as B or Z. Two books covering these are The B Method, by Steve Schneider, from Palgrave Macmillan, and Formal Specification Using Z, by David Lightfoot, from Palgrave Macmillan.

The syllabus is updated every year, but this list will give you a rough guide to modules offered at present.