The Student Room Group
Students on campus at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
Coventry

Warwick or Staffordshire uni

I'm in year 12 but thought might as well start sorting some sort of a plan right now. Plus my school was kinda forcing us to start looking at unis.

I'm thinking of studying Cyber Security at uni, both Staffordshire and Warwick offer it at bachelors, but I have no idea which one is better, because I like both(modules, location,etc). To get into Warwick I need AAB and Staffs BBC. So, which uni is better in your opinion?

Also, should I do cyber security at undergrad, or do computer science and then cyber security?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
It depends on your predicted grades (i.e. are you more likely to get AAB or BBC?). In terms of university rankings (which shouldn't be the only factor in making your decision) Warwick is rated higher than Staffordshire and is likely to be targeted by more employers. I've seen lots of cyber security jobs at PwC, E&Y, Deloitte, Capgemini etc, if I were you I would do a cyber security degree rather than doing a general computer science degree and specializing later (..but that's just my opinion - ultimately do what's best for you).
Students on campus at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
Coventry
If you like both universities and can't decide which, go to open days (you can in year 12) and have a look and feel for the university. If you still can decide, most people generally put the highest grade needed/UCAS points needed first (So Warwick would be your firm/first choice and Staffordshire your insurance/second choice).

With the whole cyber security or just computer science and then cyber security, I would say go for the Cyber Security course. If you want to go back and do a general computer science course, you could, but if cyber security is definitely what you want to go into then go for it.

You do have an entire year to decided so you've got plenty of time to research what you want.
Good luck with all your exams until then!
Reply 3
Original post by w95894
It depends on your predicted grades (i.e. are you more likely to get AAB or BBC?). In terms of university rankings (which shouldn't be the only factor in making your decision) Warwick is rated higher than Staffordshire and is likely to be targeted by more employers. I've seen lots of cyber security jobs at PwC, E&Y, Deloitte, Capgemini etc, if I were you I would do a cyber security degree rather than doing a general computer science degree and specializing later (..but that's just my opinion - ultimately do what's best for you).


I'm predicted AABB for next year but my personal goal is AAAB. I also think that I should do cyber security degree straight away, and also thanks!
Reply 4
Original post by MorgzC
If you like both universities and can't decide which, go to open days (you can in year 12) and have a look and feel for the university. If you still can decide, most people generally put the highest grade needed/UCAS points needed first (So Warwick would be your firm/first choice and Staffordshire your insurance/second choice).

With the whole cyber security or just computer science and then cyber security, I would say go for the Cyber Security course. If you want to go back and do a general computer science course, you could, but if cyber security is definitely what you want to go into then go for it.

You do have an entire year to decided so you've got plenty of time to research what you want.
Good luck with all your exams until then!


I've been to Staffs uni open day and to Warwick for this maths talk with school last year, but yeah I should visit Warwick for an open day. Thank you!
Original post by Toriel
I'm in year 12 but thought might as well start sorting some sort of a plan right now. Plus my school was kinda forcing us to start looking at unis.

I'm thinking of studying Cyber Security at uni, both Staffordshire and Warwick offer it at bachelors, but I have no idea which one is better, because I like both(modules, location,etc). To get into Warwick I need AAB and Staffs BBC. So, which uni is better in your opinion?

Also, should I do cyber security at undergrad, or do computer science and then cyber security?


If you do cyber security at undergraduate level you are rather limited about what you do after leaving. If you do a general computer science degree your options are wider. Your call...

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 6
It is much easier to do CompSci and then do Cyber Security than the other way round.

Also, bear in mind that Cyber Security is way more boring than most people imagine. Do you have any sort of work experience or shadowing in that field? Because academia and work are two different things. You will get this after awhile in uni.
Reply 7
Original post by rezzie87
It is much easier to do CompSci and then do Cyber Security than the other way round.

Also, bear in mind that Cyber Security is way more boring than most people imagine. Do you have any sort of work experience or shadowing in that field? Because academia and work are two different things. You will get this after awhile in uni.


I dont(but I'm going to try and get some), but I do know that it can be way more boring than majority expect, but then again, I find some part of computer science boring whereas most people find them "fun" and vise versa
Original post by Toriel
I'm in year 12 but thought might as well start sorting some sort of a plan right now. Plus my school was kinda forcing us to start looking at unis.

I'm thinking of studying Cyber Security at uni, both Staffordshire and Warwick offer it at bachelors, but I have no idea which one is better, because I like both(modules, location,etc). To get into Warwick I need AAB and Staffs BBC. So, which uni is better in your opinion?

Also, should I do cyber security at undergrad, or do computer science and then cyber security?


So I've worked in the Cyber Security sector for over 4 years and have masters in Cyber Security, just to qualify my answer;

Security touches everything in tech (software, hardware, networks etc...) so you need to have a deep understanding of that. Where I am concerned with some of the Cyber Security degrees I have seen is that it doesn't really seem they give you much experience in these areas. For instance, there isn't a lot of coding in Cyber Security degrees. How are you suppose to check if software is secure if you don't have a deep understanding of how code works? How it interacts with system resources like memory?

There are for sure more Cyber Security jobs now, but be aware, most of these jobs are pretty humdrum and not very exciting (unless you are a pen tester or a malware researcher). And as someone mentioned, Deloitte, PWC etc... do have a lot of Cyber Security jobs. They also have a lot of jobs for software engineers and tech consultants.... In fact the most popular job in tech (and usually the best paid) are still software engineers.

I started another thread about Cyber Security jobs here:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5157048

If you don't have time to read it, basically it says you're not going to be Mr Robot or learn how to be Mr Robot from a Cyber Security degree. GCHQ audits most courses, and they want less hackers, not more. So degrees don't teach you much in that regard.

Instead what you'll likely be doing is trawling through a ton of logs trying to find what happened and why. Or doing daily health checks to make sure everything is secure. It's not fun.

Now, Cyber Security Academia is interesting. If you want to do a PhD in the subject, there are some very cool topics right now and a lot of money kicking around in universities to study them. It may be worth studying a Cyber Security degree in that instance.

If it was me, I'd still go for a Computer Science degree with a Cyber Security flavour. I know someone posted a university recently (Cardiff?) that offered a degree in Computer Science with Cyber Security, for instance
Reply 9
Original post by jestersnow
So I've worked in the Cyber Security sector for over 4 years and have masters in Cyber Security, just to qualify my answer;

Security touches everything in tech (software, hardware, networks etc...) so you need to have a deep understanding of that. Where I am concerned with some of the Cyber Security degrees I have seen is that it doesn't really seem they give you much experience in these areas. For instance, there isn't a lot of coding in Cyber Security degrees. How are you suppose to check if software is secure if you don't have a deep understanding of how code works? How it interacts with system resources like memory?

There are for sure more Cyber Security jobs now, but be aware, most of these jobs are pretty humdrum and not very exciting (unless you are a pen tester or a malware researcher). And as someone mentioned, Deloitte, PWC etc... do have a lot of Cyber Security jobs. They also have a lot of jobs for software engineers and tech consultants.... In fact the most popular job in tech (and usually the best paid) are still software engineers.

I started another thread about Cyber Security jobs here:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5157048

If you don't have time to read it, basically it says you're not going to be Mr Robot or learn how to be Mr Robot from a Cyber Security degree. GCHQ audits most courses, and they want less hackers, not more. So degrees don't teach you much in that regard.

Instead what you'll likely be doing is trawling through a ton of logs trying to find what happened and why. Or doing daily health checks to make sure everything is secure. It's not fun.

Now, Cyber Security Academia is interesting. If you want to do a PhD in the subject, there are some very cool topics right now and a lot of money kicking around in universities to study them. It may be worth studying a Cyber Security degree in that instance.

If it was me, I'd still go for a Computer Science degree with a Cyber Security flavour. I know someone posted a university recently (Cardiff?) that offered a degree in Computer Science with Cyber Security, for instance


Thank you so much for the advice!
I spent my first two years at Staffs Uni (sadly before they opened up the shiny new computing and tech campus buildings in Stoke. The new campus looks so much better than the Beaconside campus over in Stafford). Also I think they changed all the courses/modules last year so I'm a little bit out-of-date.

Staffs is by no means a prestigious university, and the course itself is somewhat "easy going" compared to the more prestigious Universities, but it has one big positive compared to many other universities - it has worked hard to build a lot of close connections with a lot of excellent employers for industrial year placements and graduate opportunities.

This is a huge benefit if you decide to take a 4-year sandwich degree course because it will set you up in a strong position after you graduate (You will instantly be more attractive as a potential employee if you have 12 months of good commercial experience in a technical IT job under your belt on top of your degree).

The computing courses at Staffs aren't particularly strong on the academic front (Certainly not compared with the more prestigious universities anyway), but you get the option to study for professional certification such as the Cisco CCNA / CCNP as part of your degree (in other words, the course material you'd study for those will give you credit towards your degree; although they are separate exams, all of the lectures and coursework are "doubled up" for degree credit and Cisco certification, so you essentially get to study these as part of the degree itself).

On those certificates, the bar which Cisco set for the exams is 70% - which is much higher than the pass mark set by the university, so if you pass the Cisco course, then you're pretty much on your way to top grades for the Staffs networking modules. Those kinds of certificates are worth having if you are willing to put in the work. They are fairly intense though - CCNA modules were definitely the hardest thing I studied while I was there, but probably also the most useful, rewarding and worthwhile too.

If you're looking for a degree with strong academic credentials, then I'm not sure whether Staffs is the best choice - there are plenty of other universities in the country who are rated higher on academic merit. The industrial placement isn't mandatory, but if you're going to study at Staffs and decide not to do the placement year, then you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage by essentially skipping out on the main benefit of attending Staffs in the first place. Otherwise, Staffs computing courses are a fairly good choice if your goal is to get your foot onto the first step of the IT career ladder after you graduate. Staffs has a fairly good track record for its Computing graduates landing in decent IT jobs.
.
Original post by Toriel
I dont(but I'm going to try and get some), but I do know that it can be way more boring than majority expect, but then again, I find some part of computer science boring whereas most people find them "fun" and vise versa


ok, it's good that you know what you want and that you have looked at both degrees. I think the other users gave you a lot of good advice, use it and I'm sure you will be fine.
Original post by Toriel
I'm in year 12 but thought might as well start sorting some sort of a plan right now. Plus my school was kinda forcing us to start looking at unis.

I'm thinking of studying Cyber Security at uni, both Staffordshire and Warwick offer it at bachelors, but I have no idea which one is better, because I like both(modules, location,etc). To get into Warwick I need AAB and Staffs BBC. So, which uni is better in your opinion?

Also, should I do cyber security at undergrad, or do computer science and then cyber security?


@Toriel - sorry for coming so late to this thread, and not sure why it got missed in our alerts. Hopefully some of our comments below will still be of use.

Firstly, it's worth noting that the BSc Cyber Security at Warwick has achieved Provisional Certification under the programme we run here at the National Cyber Security Centre to identify excellent degrees in cyber security.

Undertaking an NCSC-certified degree means that you will be studying relevant and high-quality material, delivered by knowledgeable staff in excellent facilities. Each course has been assessed against rigorous standards by a panel of independent experts, drawn from industry, government and academia. Students who successfully complete a NCSC-certified degree programme are provided with an additional form of recognition, which will help employers distinguish between applicants’ qualifications.

Our standard for Bachelor's courses has been written on the basis that these courses will involve a lot of computing content too - as others have pointed out, this is probably the best combination at undergraduate level.

Secondly, we appreciate that very few undergraduate courses are currently certified by our scheme, but that's because we only started certifying Bachelor's courses last year. There is another batch currently under consideration, but the results won't be known until mid-late July - we'll definitely be publicising these in good time for those who are thinking of making applications in the autumn.

We're happy to answer any other questions about the scheme - good luck with your search!
Reply 13
Original post by The National Cyber Security Centre
@Toriel - sorry for coming so late to this thread, and not sure why it got missed in our alerts. Hopefully some of our comments below will still be of use.

Firstly, it's worth noting that the BSc Cyber Security at Warwick has achieved Provisional Certification under the programme we run here at the National Cyber Security Centre to identify excellent degrees in cyber security.

Undertaking an NCSC-certified degree means that you will be studying relevant and high-quality material, delivered by knowledgeable staff in excellent facilities. Each course has been assessed against rigorous standards by a panel of independent experts, drawn from industry, government and academia. Students who successfully complete a NCSC-certified degree programme are provided with an additional form of recognition, which will help employers distinguish between applicants’ qualifications.

Our standard for Bachelor's courses has been written on the basis that these courses will involve a lot of computing content too - as others have pointed out, this is probably the best combination at undergraduate level.

Secondly, we appreciate that very few undergraduate courses are currently certified by our scheme, but that's because we only started certifying Bachelor's courses last year. There is another batch currently under consideration, but the results won't be known until mid-late July - we'll definitely be publicising these in good time for those who are thinking of making applications in the autumn.

We're happy to answer any other questions about the scheme - good luck with your search!


Thank you so much for the information!
Reply 14
Original post by Toriel
Thank you so much for the information!


Just to add

Both Royal Holloway's BSc and MSci (integrated masters) in Computer Science (Information Security) and Southampton's MEng (integrated masters) in Computer Science with Cyber Security, both also have the GCHQ accreditation
Hi @Toriel


Sorry we've come a bit late to this thread.

You can find a list of all our undergrad computing degrees here: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/undergraduate/subjects/computing/

Like some of the other posters have mentioned; on our Cyber Security degree you have the option to do a placement year in industry - which can really benefit you when you come to graduate. Plus this degree is also accredited by the BCS.

If you fancy coming to the campus to see our facilities, our next Open Day is 18th August and you can book here: https://www.staffs.ac.uk/undergraduate/open-days/

Please give me a shout if you have any other questions about our courses in this area and I'll do my best to answer them :smile:

Thanks

Amy
Reply 16
Original post by Staffordshire University
Hi @Toriel


Sorry we've come a bit late to this thread.

You can find a list of all our undergrad computing degrees here: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/undergraduate/subjects/computing/

Like some of the other posters have mentioned; on our Cyber Security degree you have the option to do a placement year in industry - which can really benefit you when you come to graduate. Plus this degree is also accredited by the BCS.

If you fancy coming to the campus to see our facilities, our next Open Day is 18th August and you can book here: https://www.staffs.ac.uk/undergraduate/open-days/

Please give me a shout if you have any other questions about our courses in this area and I'll do my best to answer them :smile:

Thanks

Amy


Ah thats totally fine!
I have actually already been to an open day and currently taking part in the UniLife.
I do really like Staffs and in the end it will all depend on what grades I get! Thanks you so much for replying to the thread!
Original post by Toriel
Ah thats totally fine!
I have actually already been to an open day and currently taking part in the UniLife.
I do really like Staffs and in the end it will all depend on what grades I get! Thanks you so much for replying to the thread!


No worries! Feel free to give me a shout if you have any other questions and enjoy UniLife! :smile:

Thanks

Amy
Original post by yt7777
Just to add

Both Royal Holloway's BSc and MSci (integrated masters) in Computer Science (Information Security) and Southampton's MEng (integrated masters) in Computer Science with Cyber Security, both also have the GCHQ accreditation


Thanks @yt7777 - I should have mentioned those :-)

@Toriel - you may be interested to now that the Integrated Master's MEng Computing (Security and Reliability) at Imperial has now also gained our certification. As we mentioned upthread, our standard for undergraduate courses has been written on the basis that these courses will involve a lot of computing content too, so you get a good mixture of both fields.
Original post by Toriel
I'm predicted AABB for next year but my personal goal is AAAB. I also think that I should do cyber security degree straight away, and also thanks!



Apologies for the late reply but... Aim higher! ALWAYS! Staff look like quite a low option in comparison to what you seem capable of, so if I was in your position I would apply to Warwick.

As for the subject, from my own experience, choosing a broader subject means that if you end up not liking it, you still have a chance of changing your career options without having to completely change your course. To be more specific, I came into University having my mind set on becoming a lawyer at a Corporate Law Firm, so I'm doing a Law degree. But now, after finishing my first year, that career option has gone down my priority list massively and I have had my eyes opened to better opportunities that I know will work for me much better than corporate would. The good thing is, I am not stuck as this subject still allows me to go into different areas.

Good luck for results day!

Quick Reply

Latest