Computer Science is both an academic and a practical subject so you will be taught in different ways such as lectures, smaller group tutorials, supervised practicals (labs) and self-study including experiential learning. Assessment is by a mix of in-class tests, exams, and coursework.

The School has well equipped laboratory facilities, with PCs running Windows 7 and/or Linux and a whole range of industry-standard and educational software from Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, and others. There are specialist labs for networking, multimedia, devices, robotics, and projects.

In addition to scheduled classes, about 16 hours per week in Year 1, you will be expected to spend the same amount of time in self-study taking advantage of the University's extensive and up-to-date facilities. These include the Learning Resource Centres (LRCs), open 24x7, with over 1,200 computer workstations and wifi access, Studynet our versatile online study environment accessible on and off campus, and open access to our labs.

Most of our students own their own PC or Mac, but this is not essential since you can use the university facilities. StudyNet allows you to access electronic learning resources, electronic discussion with staff and other students and, for some modules, submit coursework 24/7 from anywhere in the world!

Work placement

Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.  

This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought after professional skills.  

Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.

If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it. 

What's next for my career?

Our graduates have become software developers, programmers, web developers, business analysts, database administrators, project managers and IT consultants, or have studied for postgraduate degrees at the University of Hertfordshire or other universities. There are careers across many employment sectors, including the IT industry, business, education and government.  Recent employers have included Blackberry, GSK, HP, IBM, John Lewis, and T-Mobile.

This course gives you a firm foundation for a career as a systems designer, software engineer or project manager. The specialism in software engineering, coupled with your broad knowledge of computer science in general, will really make your degree stand out. Recent graduates have gone on to become software engineers at Amazon and many other world-class organisations. Others have gone on to postgraduate study.