What you can study

At Bristol, we work closely with industry, enabling you to gain knowledge from leading companies and demonstrate your skills in projects involving real-world clients. Our modern building houses the popular Hackspace – a creative space for hacking, making and crafting – and a large atrium that's a hive of activity.

You will find units on:

• high-performance computing
• machine learning
• cryptology

You will be enrolled onto extra unit codes for administrative purposes. These are not extra classes.

Pre-requisites

The School of Computer Science provides Year 3 and Masters-level units on the Study Abroad programme:

• Year 3 units require a strong background in the discipline.
• Masters-level units require three years of study in the discipline.

Subject pathway students

If you have been nominated to Bristol on the Study Abroad (Computer Science pathway), you must take the majority of your credits from this guide. 

Teaching Block 1 (Sept-Dec)

Classes are held only during Weeks 1-7 in the first term. The remaining weeks are for self-study and completion of a substantial coursework project.

Units can be taken as either Minor or Major options. Majors include an intensive research project. You will indicate which format you would like when you apply.

• Minors: assessed by exam; TWO must be taken together (totalling 20 credits); no more than two can be taken 
• Majors: assessed by exam and coursework (research project); ONE or TWO can be taken (20 credits each)

Students are advised not to combine a Computer Science Major unit with units from other Schools, due to the heavy workload during the assessment period.

We recommend the following combination of units in Teaching Block 1:

• 2 Minors, totalling 20 credits
• 2 Majors, totalling 40 credits

OR

• 2 Minors, totalling 20 credits
• 2 non-Computer Science units, totalling 40 credits (see Engineering Mathematics and Technology and Electrical and Electronic Engineering for units relevant to CS)

Please note that when students take two Minors they are registered and assessed under the unit code/name COMS30081 Topics in Computer Science. That unit will appear on your transcript and not the individual topics selected.

Year 3 Masters-level Computing and Data Science units outside the School

Please choose units only from the Year 3 or Masters-level list to avoid timetable clashes.

Please choose units only from the Year 3 or Masters-level lists to avoid timetable clashes.