Masters advice on Msc Data Science

For me, City University, Lancaster, Edinburgh have the best masters courses in Data Science. I hold offers from City Uni and Lancaster and choosing City.
If you want to go into research - then probably UCL, Imperial, Oxford .
The universities and courses you have stated aren't that great(sorry just my honest experience) - do they have any industrial links ??

Can you please elaborate more on how you think Essex and Goldsmiths are not so good for data science? Do you mean that these universities are not specialized in sciences? What standards are you basing your judgement on? If you had to choose between Essex and Goldsmiths for Data Science, which one would you go to? How will i benefit if my university has industrial links considering the fact that i am an international student? Will it boost my chances of finding a job/internship during or following my graduation?

Can you please elaborate more on how you think Essex and Goldsmiths are not so good for data science? Do you mean that these universities are not specialized in sciences? What standards are you basing your judgement on? If you had to choose between Essex and Goldsmiths for Data Science, which one would you go to? How will i benefit if my university has industrial links considering the fact that i am an international student? Will it boost my chances of finding a job/internship during or following my graduation?

I know Essex is a top university. I'm not from the UK, that's why i need advice.

Unfortunately , I can't give an opinion on whether Essex or Goldsmith are better for data science as I haven't really considered either (knowing that their reputation in that specific area is not particularly high). Did you go for a open day to find out more information (some do virtual ones for people abroad) ?
Im judging this purely based on course structure i.e. whether the content is more 'academic' or 'purpose' based and whether there are strong industrial links/placement opportunities as part of the course. Employers would be looking at
whether you can use the tools to answer the relevant business problems - for which reason having hands on experience of analysing REAL world data is essential. (rather than just having knowledge of the theory or knowing how to program on practice data sets which have been recycled by the department). This is why proposed based courses score more points for me compared to the more academic/research focussed ones. Also, a lot of universities tend to focus on techniques that their department specialises in - which doesn't really give you a broader skill set when you are trying to find a job outside uni. Additionally, a lot of courses have unnecessarily modules thrown in or are very badly restructured computer science courses (under the name of data science) which is not very good.
Yes, industrial placements look good on the CV and do make you stand out from the crowd.

I have been attending data science events in london and have some experience on whats currently required in the job market - which has influenced my decision to choose City - predominantly because of their strong links with tech city. I would rate it higher than the UCL, Imperial in this respect - because of their placement opportunities and their purpose built course. Ultimately, I want to find a job after graduation and a lot of jobs nowadays are offered through knowing people/contacts/networking events etc

Im not sure what your situation is and what your goals are after completing the course - are you new to data science or already have work experience and are trying to just learn the maths and science behind the techniques ?
If it is the latter, then having a strong industrial partnership/placement opportunities may not be that big a deal - doing a course whose course content most closely matches your needs would be the best bet. I would still look at one of the better ranked universities though - doesn't have to necessarily be Oxbridge/Imperial etc but somewhere Kings would be also be a better bet than the ones you have listed.

If you search 'MSc Data Science' on TSR, you should find a number of forums where people suggest numerous courses - you will see that the ones I have mentioned seem to pop up quite often.

Thank you very much for you reply. I did consider studying at city initially but received a rejection. I applied to Royal Holloway as their program includes an additional industrial year, but i'm not sure i'd get in. The thing is even though i have 2 years of work experience, my bachelor's average is 74% which is about 2:2 in the british classification and this is not really helpful. If you were in my shoes what would you do? would you simply accept an offer from a university like Essex or would you consider doing a premaster's degree? City only has a fall intake for MSc in Data Science, so trying to get into city would mean waiting till next year.

Some misconceptions there - 74% is a First class degree, not a 2.2. We don't have 'pre-masters' degrees in the UK. Most masters courses in the UK start in September/October. I have no idea whether Essex is any good for your course, but with your undergrad result you should be aiming for the top unis (whatever they are). Good luck.

Thank you very much for you reply. I did consider studying at city initially but received a rejection. I applied to Royal Holloway as their program includes an additional industrial year, but i'm not sure i'd get in. The thing is even though i have 2 years of work experience, my bachelor's average is 74% which is about 2:2 in the british classification and this is not really helpful. If you were in my shoes what would you do? would you simply accept an offer from a university like Essex or would you consider doing a premaster's degree? City only has a fall intake for MSc in Data Science, so trying to get into city would mean waiting till next year.

I can't really say what I would do in your shoes as I don't know your circumstances, your financial situation and what your requirements are from a course (and what you hope to achieve in the long term). If it was me, I wouldn't take the offer but wait to apply next year if you can afford to do so - do you currently work and is finance an issue for you ? I agree with the post above, you could do a lot better than Essex - especially if you are after a 'top' university as Essex does not fit into that category. It seems to me that you haven't done proper research on the other options available. Try getting some work experience or intern for a data science company to learn what the current trend in the market is and what the important tools are for you to learn. Look at job descriptions to see what skills you definitely need to learn and check to see if the Msc course covers them. Alternatively, if there are data science specific tech events organised where you live, then those could also be handy. Ill say it again - a lot of courses are just a restructuring of comp science, stats or business analyst courses under the title 'data science' to try and get more students to join and fill their pockets. Try taking Andrew Ngs machine learning course on Coursera - it is famous and free and will give you some idea. There are a number of other data science free online courses on Coursera, Edx etc which are quite useful.
I am not sure how the grade system works for international students - maybe you should try and find out from each of the university your applying to - email them or phone them up. There may be different criteria for each university.
Again, where you can apply to will also depend on your financial situation(I believe the fees for international students are quite high) and in some circumstances your grades - but that shouldn't stop you from doing your research on the different universities and courses - you should really be attending open days as well and asking specific questions to the course directors to make sure you make the right decision especially before parting with that amount of cash. Some universities do virtual 'online' open days if you are not in the country or ask them if you can set up a Skype meeting or something.