Postgraduate Taught Degrees

Professional Societies and Accreditation

The School encourages students to become student members of the British Computer Society (BCS) or the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

British Computer Society (BCS)

Membership

The BSC is the Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Systems Engineering. Student members are members of the BCS Young Professionals Group. Further information and application forms are available from the General Office (4.514) or from Mr Iain Langdon (5B.521). General information on the British Computer Society is available at:

http://www.bcs.org/

Information about the local (Essex) branch of the BCS is available at:

www.essex.bcs.org

The Branch holds many events throughout the year some of which are based at the University Campus. Details are publicised on the University Intranet and on the Branch Web site.

Accreditation

The BCS offers exemption from its professional examinations to students following accredited degrees. At its last accreditation visit during the academic year 2006-07, approval was granted for the School’s Postgraduate schemes as follows:

MSc Computer Science conditionally

Exemption (Professional Graduate Diploma and PGD Project) is granted for a period of five intakes, from the intake 2006 up to and including 2010, in the full-time and part-time modes.

MSc Embedded Systems conditionally

Exemption (Professional Graduate Diploma and PGD Project) is granted for a period of five intakes, from the intake 2006 up to and including 2010, in the full-time and part-time modes.

Conditions for all degrees:

Students must pass, at the first attempt, a practical problem-solving project. Additionally all the above schemes provide partial academic fulfilment for CEng/CSci.

From October 2008 the School is offering some revised degree schemes:

MSc Advanced Web Engineering
MSc Computer and Information Networks
MSc Computer Security
MSc Computing
MSc Intelligent Systems and Robotics

These schemes will be reviewed by the BCS during their next visit in 2011. However, having had discussions with the BCS, it is our expectation that all the schemes will benefit from similar accreditation as before, which will be applied retrospectively during their visit in 2011.

Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is one of the world’s leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. IET literature is available at: http://www.theiet.org. You can choose to join the IET at any time during your course but obviously the sooner you join the sooner you benefit from membership. In order to become a Student member you can complete an online registration form at: http://www.theiet.org/membership/join/.

Locally the IET Anglian Coastal Network organise a number of meetings here at the University. The topics selected for these evening meetings are of broad interest to all students on our courses. The meetings are also held in the Ipswich area and the IET Essex Branch organises meetings in Chelmsford. Whether or not you choose to become a Student member of the IET you are welcome to attend any of these events which will be publicised in the Department by posters and also via email. Details of local IET meetings and details of student bursaries can also be found on the IET notice board.

If you join as a Student member you will be automatically transferred to the class of Member of the IET (MIET) when you graduate. After a number of years in a responsible position, you can apply to be become a Chartered Engineer.

Further information is available from Dr. R. Palaniappan (5B.527).

Accreditation

IET accredits degrees on behalf of the UK Engineering Council. This means that a graduate from these degree programmes will have satisfied to Masters level the education requirements to allow them to apply to become a Chartered Engineer once they have 4 years of appropriate responsible experience. The following MSc schemes to be offered by the Department from October 2008 will be reviewed by the IET during their next visit in 2011. However, having discussions with the IET, it is our expectation that all the schemes will benefit from accreditation, which will be applied retrospectively during their visit in 2011.

Postgraduate schemes
MSc Telecommunication and Information Systems