Computing

Six reasons to study computing at the University of Brighton

The University of Brighton has an established reputation within computing. It was the first university in the UK to develop an undergraduate award in computing.

Courses

We offer a range of courses covering all aspects of computing at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The undergraduate degree programme includes foundation, honours and integrated masters degrees, with some courses taught at partner colleges. At postgraduate level we offer a modular approach on most masters courses to give you flexible options. Postgraduate programmes cover a range of areas such as such as user experience design to software engineering.

Our undergraduate computing courses share some common modules throughout the first year so that we ensure you learn the core skills within computing, whilst getting the opportunity to specialise in your chosen area.

Students combine specialist skills with the development of business, interpersonal, communication and analytical skills.

The specialist skills you can develop from our courses include:

Creating complex software applications
Good engineering practice, including making systems easy to maintain and using existing components.
Software/hardware interface design and the challenges presented by expanding use of the internet.
Careful requirements gathering for information systems, package selection, contract management and customisation.
Designing the content and structure of complex multimedia systems.
How to create a range of multimedia resources - images, sounds, animation, video, 3D and interactive elements - and learn how to assemble them into engaging, usable and useful products and services.

Members of staff come from careers within industry so have a wealth of experience they bring to their teaching.

Further information

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Professional and industry links

All the degrees within the computing undergraduate programme are designed to prepare students for professional practice and provide for continuing professional development. Our courses have professional recognition from the British Computer Society (BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT) for accreditation.

Placements

The placement year taken between the second and final years of study enables you to apply your accumulated specialist skills in paid employment and gain valuable hands on experience. It also helps you to build industry contacts that will be invaluable when you graduate. Recent graduates have also benefited from employers own training schemes, for example Max Kenney, a recent student on placement at Glaxo Smith Kline as a Junior Support Analyst, says

"Working at gsk has allowed me to do training in specific applications and general work etiquette. They have also said that I can go on further training courses in the future, this will be good to put on my CV."

We support our students to help them find suitable placements. We have a placements unit which acts as a link between employers and students, providing information about placements and arranging opportunities for interviews.

Graduate outcomes

All types of organisations need graduates who can understand both how businesses operate and how information and communication technologies can be used to support and enhance organisations activities.

Recent graduates have started careers as

HSBC Bank (assistant programmer)
Office Network Ltd (IT manager)
Xerox (web developer)
BT (database developer)
Climax Computer Games Design (games designer/developer)
Legal and General (trainee web developer)
OPRA (IT support technician)
Whitehall Robins-Wyeth (database analyst-medical sales)
Accord IT Services (technical consultant)
Little John Frazer Chartered Accountants (analyst/programmer)
Enhanced Television Producer, Turner Broadcasting

Some of our graduates have also gone on to Masters level degree courses.

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Research

A thriving research group has research students investigating challenging areas such as the use of mobile phones in learning, advisory systems in the treatment of cancer and reducing IT project failure.

Facilities

In addition to the university’s facilities, which include a media centre, TV studio and computer store, you will have the opportunity to use the following specific school facilities: