Accreditation
In almost every profession, one of the things that the professional bodies which regulate that profession do is check the quality of relevant degree programmes, and then accredit those programmes that meet their criteria.
What is accreditation?
In computing, these activities are run by the British Computer Society (BCS), who accredit degree programmes as meeting the educational requirements for the various professional qualifications that they can subsequently award. Each of these qualifications also has requirements for professional experience, to be achieved once you have graduated, but knowing that your degree would meet the relevant educational requirements provides you with a guarantee that the degree programme is of high quality.
Which professional qualifications are relevant?
The BCS can award the following professional qualifications:
- Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP): Accreditation is mark of assurance that the degree meets the standards set by the BCS. An accredited degree entitles you to professional membership of BCS, which is an important part of the criteria for achieving Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status through the Institute.
- Chartered Engineer (CEng/IEng): Accreditation is a mark of assurance that the degree meets the standards set by the Engineering Council in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). An accredited degree will provide you with some or all of the underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills for eventual registration as an Incorporated (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng).
Some employers recruit preferentially from accredited degrees, and an accredited degree is likely to be recognised by other countries that are signatories to international accords.
As part of the accreditation process, an accreditation panel from the BCS visits the School of Computer Science on a periodic basis. The most recent of these visits was in October 2022, to review the accreditation of our degrees for the next five years. The panel was impressed with the quality of our courses, and on the basis of their recommendations, the BCS agreed to accredit our programmes as detailed below.
Courses
The courses below fully meet the requirements for both of the professional qualifications (CITP, CEng).
- MComp Computer Science/ with an Industrial Placement Year
- MComp Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence)/ with an Industrial Placement Year
- MEng Computer Science (Software Engineering)/ with an Industrial Placement Year
The courses below fully meet the requirements for CITP and partially meet the requirements for CEng.
- BSc Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence)/ with an Industrial Placement Year
- BSc Computer Science (Software Engineering)/ with an Industrial Placement Year
- BSc Computer Science/ with an Industrial Placement Year
The courses below partially meet the requirements for CITP and partially meet the requirements for CEng.
- MSc Data Analytics
- MSc Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence
- MSc Advanced Computer Science
- MSc Computer Science with Speech and Language Processing
If you have any questions about the accreditation of our degree programmes, please contact our admissions team.