Universities for Computer Science

Best universities for CS?
Factoring in:
1. Course
2. Campus
3. Student life
4. Graduate Prospects

I'm thinking of applying to Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Imperial or UCL as firms.
I visited Warwick and loved it and I didn't like Imperial on visit.

For CS applicants and those already at university which universities do you think have the most interesting courses and which have the best 'uni life'

Thnx 🤙🏾

I would also recommend Southampton as they have a world class CS department.

I know league tables shouldn't be taken as the word of God but on CUG Durham are 4th for CS and Southampton are 11th. Why is this so?

Also what are you doing right now? Going into year 13? In uni?

Ha ha I wish! I'm a mature student just finishing my 2nd masters. So I've had a good bit of experience reading and analysing CS research in various areas, and you will see certain universities time and again when you are citing quality research. In the UK, it's Oxbride, UCL, Bristol, Southampton, Imperial usually. I would also give honourable mentions to Birmingham and Royal Holloway (they were related to my cyber security dissertation).

I'm sure Durham has a very competent CS department, but based on reviews on here from students who went there, the contraction of their CS department and a lack (in terms of quantity) of high quality research from Durham in CS, it creates the impression that regardless of the rankings, the CS department isn't one of the best. I also had 2 friends (PhD students) attend a conference at Durham a few weeks ago. They came away from their time at Durham with the impression CS wasn't a top priority at Durham. I'm sure if you went there you'd get a fine education. There might be better uni's in terms of CS though.

I mean, this is what the CS/EE department at Southampton have recently came up with. Genuinely something that is a game changer in terms of technology. It caused quite the stir in academic circles around the world when it happened (it was mentioned in academic journals and magazines in many countries).

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-data-storage-update.page

I am not sure how strong CS at Durham is. I haven't read a lot of quality research from there and they have cut down on their postgrad CS courses recently.

I would also recommend Southampton as they have a world class CS department.

What uni did u study at?

And I feel silly for forgetting but Edinburgh/Glasgow is really worth considering too for CS. Excellent universities and opportunities for CS. Both involved in bleeding edge research. Well regarded internationally. And it's a great cities!

Ulster and QUB. I have attended conferences at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham and visited Southampton too.

I live in London 😂I don't think I'll be applying to any universities in Scotland.



Any opinion on Birminghams conference. Also, what were these conferences on? How would you rank the quality of teaching at your own university?

Edinburgh (HPC)
Glasgow (Haskell)
Birmingham (Cyber Security)

Birmingham seemed quite nice but there were a few unhappy students with the teaching there, and the bit we were in was quite a bit out of town.

Ulster was great for student satisfaction and had a strong CS department. Its a young uni but its really up and coming. They have a new £250 million campus in Belfast opening soon. It is not the most prestigious university at present.

QUB was great for post grad but just okay for undergrad. As a smaller Russell group uni, there is an emphasis on research. This can be to the detriment of undergrads though as staff are more concerned with researching than lecturing.

QUB isn't as math heavy vs some other uni's for CS. It is however a top 10 uni for EE .

Thinking of Applying to QUB (And maybe Edinburgh and Glasgow) is it really bad? Did you do CS or SE or what where else would you recommend to someone from NI?

So no, its not bad. Is it CS you are doing?

While Qub is not bad, its not amazing either. Lecturers are often more focused onresearch so tend to spend as little time as possible working with students. Some of them will even tell you if you ask them directly that they don't like teaching. That comes across big time.

UU is a decent alternative, especially the CS program in Magee.

Glasgow and Edinburgh are a step above qub in terms of CS. No doubt about that though.

It depends on your goals too. QUB is pretty good with placement years and most grads get jobs no bother, as do UU. Most of them are employed in NI though. QUB and uu both tend to be less math orientated than some of the other big uni's. Having a more math orientated CS degree is only useful if you plan to do postgrad/Phd/research roles IMO.

I did my masters with students who did their degrees in UCD and DCU. You might want to check those uni's too as the CS degrees ( think DCU called it Computer Applications) are supposed to be very good and well linkedin with the so called "Silicon Dock" area in Dublin.

Looked at NUI Galway and DCU but not UCD, the CAO doesn't open until November so that's okay for now. So if you get stuck don't expect much help from the lecturers at qub?