Which university to take masters computer science

Hi everyone. I am planning to apply master in UK this year. I have already graduated with first class honours computing(Greenwich university campus Ha Noi). In addition, I already have 2 years working experiences with C++ in maintained desktop project. I actually want to improve my knowledge about programming. Can you recommend me some good universities to learn master in CS ?
Furthermore, does the ranking reflect exactly the content of lecture as well as lecturer of these university ?https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2017/may/16/university-guide-2018-league-table-for-computer-science-information
Finally, it it too different between university rank 10 and rank 30 in applying job and quality of degree?
Thanks.

Hello,

So well done on the 1st class degree. There are some outstanding universities in the UK for Computer Science.

I would not put too much stock in academic rankings, as they tend to change and each of them use different criteria. As you say, there isn't much difference between 10th to 30th place university generally.

So I did 2 masters degrees and attended many open days and conferences over the years. Here are the following places I would recommend you check (aside from the obvious Oxbridge/Imperial):

Edinburgh: Outstanding reputation for CS, with a huge amount of modules for selection for your masters degree. Has very strong research areas in AI, HPC and Data Science.

Warwick: This would probably be a good masters if you want to specialise in data science, as they have a strong reputation for that.

Southampton: Has an incredible reputation and a world class CS department.

Bristol: Has a good reputation for CS and like Southampton, is very well regarded by IT recruiters in London.

UCL: Has a good range of postgraduate courses, but they are specialisms (e.g. HCI, Data Science). Has an overall good reputation, but London is expensive.

I would caution against certain universities that have an overall "excellent" reputation but have comparatively small CS programs. Durham, for example, has a strong reputation overall, but does not have the strong or big CS department.

There are also some Russell Group Universities that teach Masters in Computer Science, but they are aimed as conversion courses for students from other STEM subjects who did not study CS at undergrad. So they are basically undergraduate courses but they have the title of a Masters degree. It's probably not that helpful for you to study those. You would find courses like that in places like University of Nottingham, University of Newcastle, and QUB.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I will highly consider Southampton and Warwick
By the way, can you review CS of Coventry and UEA university? Because I found that these universities have lower tuition fee and offer scholarships as well.

I wouldn't know much about Coventry beyond what it says about the course on their website. UEA however has a pretty good CS department and that would be worth considering.

Specifically, i aim to study deeply in machine learning. Can you have some recommendations for me? Is Bristol, UCL, Bath, UEA, Southampton good?

Specifically, i aim to study deeply in machine learning. Can you have some recommendations for me? Is Bristol, UCL, Bath, UEA, Southampton good?

Hello,

So well done on the 1st class degree. There are some outstanding universities in the UK for Computer Science.

I would not put too much stock in academic rankings, as they tend to change and each of them use different criteria. As you say, there isn't much difference between 10th to 30th place university generally.

So I did 2 masters degrees and attended many open days and conferences over the years. Here are the following places I would recommend you check (aside from the obvious Oxbridge/Imperial):

Edinburgh: Outstanding reputation for CS, with a huge amount of modules for selection for your masters degree. Has very strong research areas in AI, HPC and Data Science.

Warwick: This would probably be a good masters if you want to specialise in data science, as they have a strong reputation for that.

Southampton: Has an incredible reputation and a world class CS department.

Bristol: Has a good reputation for CS and like Southampton, is very well regarded by IT recruiters in London.

UCL: Has a good range of postgraduate courses, but they are specialisms (e.g. HCI, Data Science). Has an overall good reputation, but London is expensive.

I would caution against certain universities that have an overall "excellent" reputation but have comparatively small CS programs. Durham, for example, has a strong reputation overall, but does not have the strong or big CS department.

There are also some Russell Group Universities that teach Masters in Computer Science, but they are aimed as conversion courses for students from other STEM subjects who did not study CS at undergrad. So they are basically undergraduate courses but they have the title of a Masters degree. It's probably not that helpful for you to study those. You would find courses like that in places like University of Nottingham, University of Newcastle, and QUB.

Do these unis ie Warwick, Southampton that you have listed above require you to have studied CS at bsc level? Or can anyone from a science background for example can do the masters 1 year course? Or would you need to show you have worked for a few years related to CS? Thanks

It'll depend on your application really. What did you study for undergrad? Did you have any computational modules in your degree? What's your computing experience like outside of uni?

It's actually fairly common to see non-CS grads on some of those courses. I had Maths, Statistics, Physics and Economics grads on one of my CS related masters.

Okay this may sound bizzare but
I haven't yet completed my undergrad (I'm a first year) doing Biology but I don't know if I really want to work in a lab after the end of my degree and I have heard so many things about CS and it's really useful to have whatver industry you're in e.g in science etc etc
I know it's way too early to be thinking about these things now but I'm just curious and want to know. And no there's no programming elements to my course. I dont know much about computing but I do like the application of things and I did enjoy maths alevel.

There's about a dozen or so (probably more ) universities, including RG universities, that offer "conversion" masters degrees in Computer Science that accept a wide range of undergrad degrees. You are correct, tech is so pervasive in every industry now that having CS knowledge is always helpful.

Does your current university have any flexibility with the electives they offer at undergrad? That might be worth checking.

I'll double check if that is possible. But do most students e.g who did econ, physics, maths had computing options within their degree which is why they were more likely to be accepted into their program?

Occasionally yes, that helps. You can pick up some of those skills on your own outside of class though. And those "conversion" masters I mentioned presumed zero CS knowledge, so you'd be fine to get in to one of those.

What can I do outside the class to show these skills that the uni would want?
Thanks

Take some coding courses and computing courses on Lynda or Coursera. Work on a project that shows you are interested ( you could for example build a simple website or game) once you have started to build up said skills. I'd also look at attending events like hackathons, particularly around the areas of wearable technology and bioinformatics, as that will tie in to your biology degree.

We've hicjacked the OPs thread a bit lol! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions, or start another thread about the subject.