MSc Data Science

Data can provide insights to shape decision-making, power scientific innovation, improve business operations or inform government policy. But it takes state-of-the-art statistical and computational methods to unlock that power. Our MSc Data Science course lets you master those methods. 

On this data science masters, we’ll equip you with the knowledge and skills to acquire, curate, manage and analyse data for solving real-world problems. You will gain essential, transferable computational and statistical thinking skills to create and deploy data-driven products and knowledge. And you’ll look at ways to solve challenges in a range of potential, data-rich, application domains, such as health, climate, transportation and sales. 

You will have the flexibility to set the direction for your postgraduate studies with a masters project of your own design. While you’ll have the one-to-one support of your supervisor, it’s a solo project – as much about developing computing skills as it is about building confidence and autonomy, vital skills for the workplace.

We’ll help you put the technical skills into a real-world, professional context – helping you communicate your findings in the workplace, and address any of the legal or ethical questions that come with data processing. 

Whether you plan to continue your studies onto PhD level or you’re looking ahead to a career as a data scientist, data architect, database developer or big data analyst, this masters degree in data science can pave the way.

Our MS Data Science course is made up of nine core units covering topics from the principals of data science, computational mathematics and statistics, to fundamental algorithms and machine learning concepts. You can choose to study the course full-time over one year, or part-time, where you’ll complete the units over two years. You may also choose to take an additional one-year optional industry placement on the full-time route.

You’ll start by learning key processes of data science from an applied perspective, gaining the required skills for operating fluently within a data science environment. From there, you’ll explore aspects and tasks relating to the life-cycle of data in organisations and the wider issues relating to data handling, along with algorithms and data structures used to solve several computational challenges.

You’ll cover fundamental machine learning concepts, mainly from a practical, problem-solving perspective – including foundations of predictive tasks and contemporary techniques for predictive modelling. You’ll then build on your knowledge with an Advanced Machine Learning unit and a Deep Learning unit, which provides you with the required background for operating fluently within a deep learning ecosystem.

In another unit, you’ll gain an understanding of industry-relevant tools and techniques for solving large-scale problems through exploring practical aspects of scalable data processing and efficient problem solving for ‘big data’.

Finally, you will complete an in-depth, independent research project. With the support of our academic and technical team, you’ll undertake a piece of research on a topic of your choice related to your studies. This will involve designing, implementing and evaluating a substantial piece of software and documenting the research through writing a dissertation. 

Studying as part of the Department of Computing and Mathematics, you’ll have guidance from an expert team with leading knowledge in the area. Your studies will be rooted in the kind of cutting-edge research that’s addressing societal challenges, making an impact on areas like healthcare, future cities and security.

What is the length of the course?

• 1 year full-time
• 2 years full-time with placement