Honours
The BSc Honours and MSci Honours programmes take place over 4 and 5 years respectively. Years 1 and 2 are commonly referred to as sub-Honours years. Years 3, 4 (and 5 for the MSci) are the Honours years. Year 3 is also known as Junior Honours, year 4 as Senior Honours and is the final year for the BSc. Year 5, often referred to as the fifth or MSci year, is final year for MSci students.
The first 3 years are shared by both BSc and MSci. Substantial projects are undertaken by students in years 3 & 4 for the BSc and in years 3 and 5 for the MSci. More information on the projects is given below.
Honours Entry
Induction
There will be various induction sessions in orientation week. Attendance at relevant sessions on the Thursday is compulsory for Single Honours students. Attendance at other sessions is very strongly encouraged. Joint Honours students are strongly advised to attend as many sessions as possible, and to familiarise themselves with the contents of any sessions they miss.
Tutorials
Tutorials may be arranged by lecturers, to discuss lecturer-set problems, the coursework, lecture material, sample or past examination questions and other general issues relating to their modules. Students should take advantage of tutorials by preparing solutions to problems and thinking about the other issues carefully in advance.
Coursework
Students may use and are strongly encouraged to come into the School and use any of the School Computer Labs physically where it is easier to talk to and get to know your peers and receive support. It is also the case that you must ensure that code submissions compile and run on School lab PCs or teaching servers, unless otherwise instructed in the coursework specification.
The lab PCs provide all of the software required for practical work on CS modules.
The School provides a resilient storage service for files stored in a user’s network home directories.
If you are working on your own computer, you are required to backup your work regularly and at the very least every 24 hours. As a registered student, you have access to OneDrive via Microsoft 365 which may suffice for many smaller projects. CS network home directories are accessible via SSH on the teaching servers, from the University network. Distributed version control is another option for backing-up work.
Each individual piece of coursework has its own deadline defined in MMS. After this deadline, lateness penalties apply, and work may not receive formative feedback.
As already described, failure to achieve an overall coursework average of at least 4, taking into account lateness penalties, will result in failing a module without right to reassessment. In coursework-only modules, since no reassessment is available, an overall grade of 7 must be achieved.
See also target feedback timescales.
Progression
For progression beyond the first two semesters of an Honours programme, a student must have passed their core Junior Honours module CS3099 and fulfilled the Faculty regulations regarding credit requirements.
It is possible to switch from BSc Honours to MSci at the end of Junior Honours year. To do this, students must have passed all their Junior Honours modules at first sitting and first enrolment with a weighted average of at least 11.
External Examiner
The School’s External Examiner for Honours is Dr Joseph Maguire of Glasgow University.
Distinguished Lecture Series
All final year Single Honours BSc and MSci students are required to attend all lectures in the Distinguished Lecture Series.
Projects
Project Library
There is a project library showcasing selected Junior Honours and Senior Honours project reports from previous years.
Final Year Projects
As part of their studies, BSc and MSci students undertake a substantial Computer Science project in their final year (year 4 for the BSc and year 5 for the MSci). More information on these can be found on the Final-Year Projects page.
Classification
The University applies a common algorithm for the calculation of the award of all Honours classifications. Degrees are classified using a credit-weighted calculation of grades achieved for Honours-level modules (3000 level and above) taken during an approved Honours programme. This ensures consistency, particularly if you are taking a joint degree. Full details are available in the University’s Honours Classification algorithm.