Top-up degree recommendations (computer programming)

Hello everyone,

Soon I will have to apply for a top up degree course and I am a bit worried about where to go, so please help me with some recommendations.

I am interested into a programming course, I have done C++ and C# in high school, pretty good at them specially at C# Windows Forms, and a little bit of HTML and PHP at the HND; also some linux server experience because I used to run a few websites.

I am looking to find a course to offer me the possibility to extend my programming skills, a course based more on projects and less on assignments, a course where the tutor is teaching you how to code from scratch and not based on researching.

I have found the following course at London Metropolitan University: Software Engineering (Top-up) - BEng (Hons) but as I read on internet, London Met is not the best choice.

I live in London E6 and I own a car, so any suggestions that doesn't exceed 50 miles from me are welcomed.

Thank you,
Adrian

I am looking to find a course to offer me the possibility to extend my programming skills, a course based more on projects and less on assignments, a course where the tutor is teaching you how to code from scratch and not based on researching.

Have aplay with this and use the filters on the left.

Talk to some students from London Met. It gets badmouthed on here as a sport by people who have never been, but plenty of actual students post who have had good experiences.
Visit and find out for yourself. If yur marks are good then still get in the best uni you can.
https://www.londonmetsu.org.uk/organisation/7116/
https://digital.ucas.com/search/results?SearchText=computer+top-up&AutoSuggestType=&SearchType=searchbarbutton&PreviouslyAppliedFilters=D_0_Undergraduate__PD_1_50mi%7CWC2N+5HS__&filters=Destination_Undergraduate&ProviderText=&vacancy-rb=rba&filters=&SubjectText=&DistanceFromPostcode=50mi&RegionDistancePostcode=e6+2bb&SearchType=addpostcodedistancebutton&SortOrder=ProviderAtoZ&CurrentView=Provider

I'm not sure that you'll find this on any degree courses, since they tend to put a high emphasis on self-study and even the most vocational courses tend to have quite a lot of assignments. Perhaps you'd be better off with a 'coding bootcamp' type course instead; luckily there are a few of these in London, for example:
https://www.makersacademy.com/

Hi Adrian! I'm an alumni of London Met and I can't praise it enough. I didn't study Software Engineering, I studied Journalism - but I can reply to you query about reputation (people not thinking it's a good choice). There is a real sense of community when you're on campus and the lecturers went above and beyond to help me in my courses. They've also just had state of the art technology installed in a brand new building as part of a project to make the University even more collaborative and to give it more of a community feel. The University also offer help and advice for three years after graduating too so that they can help you find a job or prepare you for interviews. I loved my time there. They've also got some impressive statistics too like the fact that 95% of their graduates are in work or further study within 6 months. I'd highly recommend studying there.

Do you have any experience with this or another "coding bootcamp", can you find a job easy after that?

@adriannn Rather than looking for specifically a top-up degree you could consider looking at applying for direct third year entry (you can specify this on UCAS when making an application)

If not, these courses look pretty good

Personally, no, although I've got a fairly good idea how they work. For some people it can be a good way to learn a lot of important skills. Most people who do them are already self-taught in coding or otherwise have a strong technical background; the bootcamps teach coding as well as a lot of other software engineering and software project delivery skills.

The main downside to them is their cost - i.e. it's a similar amount of money to 1 year at university. (Also, only go through well-known bootcamps which actually have partnerships with companies - those ones can usually arrange plenty of interviews at the end of the course.)

Bootcamps are a 3-month (or thereabouts) high-intensity full-time course in learning how to be a software engineer and deliver working software; usually 10+ hour days for 5 days per week for 3 months in the training centre with the instructors and other trainees learning the skills and working through the problem sets/challenges/projects full-time to pick up those skills. So aside from the cost, it's really not for everyone. It depends whether that's the kind of environment you'd thrive in. You definitely can't take it slow or do things on your own time/schedule (which is where a 1 year top-up degree would suit other people). Usually the types of people who do those courses are people who are very enthusiastic about working as a software developer so they're happy to live and breathe it for 3-4 months.

The best ones will have partnerships with loads of companies (especially in London, it's probably focused on the City and startup/tech hubs), so the skills they teach are targeted at meeting the demands of those companies. The partnerships should mean they can easily get you interviews, so the employability prospects should be high as long as you're happy to work for one of those companies. (of course you're not going to be limited to those, but I'd imagine that's where the best prospects are)

The other side is that the courses themselves are pre-screened - i.e. they don't just allow anybody onto the course who is looking to pay, they'll put you through a recruitment process for the course itself (So if it's a worthwhile course to get onto then you'll need to "pre learn" some technical skills and do an assessment before being accepted on the course). If you already know how to code and you have some free time then that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The worthwhile bootcamps are in high-demand too, so there's competition for spaces and a queue for people to get on to them.

The structure of bootcamps combines learning and project work in teams with other trainees and supervision from the instructors. Unlike an individual university project they'll usually get you doing things like pair-programming, code reviews, automated testing, using source control, using deployment tools, project team standup meetings, agile planning sessions, etc - stuff you don't do at university but will need to do as a professional.

I am a little bit confused now, so there is a difference between a top-up degree and third year at university?