Why Manchester

Computer Science is already transforming other disciplines such as Medicine, Biology, Chemistry, and Social Science, with impact on a broad range of industries and organisations. This is opening doors for graduates to a whole host of rewarding and exciting careers in virtually all areas of business and society.

Computing is transforming every aspect of our lives - our aim is to equip students with the knowledge and skills to prepare them for a career shaping the future. Computing will be at the heart of future revolutions in business, science and society. Find out what our current students and graduates have to say about the value of a Computer Science degree.

We are a world class centre of excellence in research and education and have been at the forefront of computing for 40 years, since our foundation as the UK’s first specialist university computing department. We continue to build on our history of groundbreaking achievements in computer science and were rated 5th and 2nd in the UK for research quality and research power in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008). Our undergraduate programmes, in addition to being accredited to both the BCS and IET, were rated excellent (the highest possible grade) in the most recent HEFCE teaching assessment exercise.

We also try to provide a supportive environment, and we care about student welfare. The School offers a student advice service for students to come with any issues in their study or lives, excellent pastoral student support and closely integrated and effective tutorial support for lectures.

The value of a Manchester Computer Science degree is reinforced by our close ties with industry. Employers, from larger multinationals such as EA Games, IBM and Microsoft to small local organisations, actively seek out our students for projects, sponsorships, placements (with Industrial Experience variant) and graduate jobs.

A significant number of our graduates also go on to undertake research and higher degrees.

Manchester University was one of the forerunners in the development of computing, with the first stored program machine being built here in 1948.

Since that time, there has always been high quality innovative research in computing at Manchester. The School developed out of these activities and was one of the earliest Computer Science Departments to be founded.

The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS) fully accredit all of our Single Honours degree programmes. This accreditation means that successfully completing one of these programme fulfils the academic requirements associated with becoming a member of these institutions.

Successful completion of our MEng programmes gives exemption from the Engineering Council professional examinations, the first step towards becoming a chartered engineer.

The joint Honours computer science and mathematics degree programme is accredited by the BCS as giving exemption from Part I of their professional examinations.

We undertake a broad range of research activities, from Engineering Research including novel and distributed architectures, new technologies for processors and storage; through System Development and Design methodologies, to formal and mathematical methods; a large Machine Learning and Optimization group with activities including neural nets, machine learning, and computational linguistics; large research groups in Advanced Databases, in Computer-Aided Design, in Virtual Reality Systems and in Mobile Computing.

As well as Computer Science research, there are many interdisciplinary research activities, including BioMedical and Health Informatics, jointly with the Medical School and local hospitals, BioInformatics with the Faculty of Life Sciences, business and industrial applications jointly with the Manchester Federal School of Management, Imaging Science with the Division of Imaging Science and BioMedical Engineering in the Medical School. This is but a selection of the wide range of our activities.

The School has a strong industrial partnerships with influential and future shaping external organisations across the UK and internationally from which opportunities exist for collaborative ventures in teaching and research, knowledge transfer and enterprise creation.

Manchester Informatics is the school's industrial liaison, teaching and exploitation unit.

The University Enterprise Centre, provides students with a practical knowledge to grow and exploit entrepreneurial skills and ideas.

The School's strength in pushing the boundaries of technological change is evident in the success of its spin out companies.