Introduction

This programme aims to: 
1. Provide an academically rigorous and industry-relevant education in computing at honours level;
2. Enhance students' abilities to apply and use contemporary software development practices, platforms, and collaboration tools; 
3. Cultivate students' critical awareness of data security, ethics, and governance in digital systems;
4. Offer opportunities to study cutting-edge topics in computing including machine learning, big data, interaction design and cloud systems; and 
5. Prepare graduates with transferable skills and research abilities relevant for both employment and postgraduate study.
 

Programme Features

This programme is designed for students wishing to convert a Higher Diploma or Associate Degree into a full BSc (Hons) in Computing. Our curriculum is distinctive in its integration of modern development practices such as AI-assisted programming, no-code tools, and collaborative software engineering. Students also explore data governance and ethical considerations in real-world computing contexts. 
 

Modules

Computing Project: Proposal 

The Project proposal module is the first half of your undergraduate project in which you define the problem you will address, explore its background and context, and develop a plan for a practical exploration in the follow-up computing practical module. This will build on the academic, research, and technical skills and expertise you have gained during your studies, which are documented in your skills audit. The skill set developed through the project will enhance your future career and employability competencies. The summative assessment is a portfolio and a viva.

Computing Project: Practical 

This module is the second half of your undergraduate project. You design, develop, test and critically evaluate a system/software development project you defined in your first-semester project proposal module. This project will build on the academic, research and technical skills and expertise you have gained during your studies. The skill set developed through the project will enhance your future career and employability competencies. The summative assessment is via the demonstration of a portfolio of evidence related to your systems development and a short evaluative report.

Contemporary Methods of Software Development

This module will explore contemporary approaches for developing interactive systems such as web and mobile applications. The module will combine practical, hands-on experience of designing and building applications with theory and reflective discussion of issues in software development including how software quality can be balanced with developer productivity. The module will show how interactive systems can be architected to combine databases, application logic and user interfaces and how such layered systems are typically constructed using combinations of languages, frameworks and services. The module will cover the tools and techniques used in contemporary development, including the use of integrated development environments (IDEs), library and package managers, versioning tools, debugging and testing tools and documentation. Generative AI plays an important role in modern software development systems and the module will explore how chatbots and code assistants can be directly integrated into developer tools.

Data Security and Governance

Technological developments often move at a pace that makes it difficult for laws and counter-crime technologies to keep up. Even as you study this module there will be new ethical, and legal and technical challenges for even the most experienced of professionals. Debates on the most appropriate ethical, technical, organisational and professional approach continue to grow more complex. The module will be enriched by the research that you will do for your assessment portfolio, which will involve the development and exchange of debating arguments. Through exchanging formative feedback with your peers, and receiving formative feedback from your tutors, you will become better able to judge your own performance and identify both strengths and weaknesses emerging through attempting the different parts of your assignment.

Computing Group Project

This module allows you to work in a small group of your peers to undertake a project related to your degree programme in computing. You will apply and extend your extensive knowledge and skillsets that have been acquired up until this point in your studies. The emphasis will be on the professional, collaborative, team-based delivery of a computing solution to a real-world problem. You will practise at least one substantial team role and be able to recognise the attributes and behaviours of other roles within a team. Your team, as a whole, will demonstrate the ability to produce appropriate deliverables from the development lifecycle that reflect the application of knowledge and understanding of your chosen degree programme and reflecting the ethos of the programme; for example, this could be a software artefact or application, a systems design, a data processing strategy or similar. You will also be taught and assessed on your ability to work as a member of a development team, recognising the different roles within a team and ways of organising teams and asked to reflect upon the sustainable impact of your deliverable.

Machine Learning (elective*)

This module introduces theoretical foundations and practical examples of advance level of machine learning techniques/concepts to you. 'Machine learning' module will provide you with a thorough understanding of both traditional and state-of-the-art methodologies, awareness of important implementation aspects e.g. scalability, tuning the hyper-parameters, choosing the right model according to the data/application domain. In your assessment, you will implement these methods and fine tune your model parameters or hyper-parameters to solve a specific practical problem in relevant research areas e.g. Natural Language Processing, Medical Diagnosis, Speech Recognition, and you will be provided feedback on your practical work. This research led module enables you to gain a broad range of skills including analytical, problem solving, creativity, conducting research by addressing legal, ethical, social issues properly, and in return improves your employability.

Cloud Computing (elective*) 

This module introduces you to the theory, principles and practice behind Cloud Computing. Indicative topics include: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service. Theory is followed practical workshops implementing cloud services from a range of leading cloud providers. You will apply the acquired theoretical and practical knowledge in building a substantial project.

Big Data (elective*) 

This module focuses on understanding the storage, manipulation and analysis of Big Data: that is data that is high in volume, is captured at high velocity and contains high variety (in terms of structured and unstructured parts). You will investigate the tools and techniques both for storage of this data, such as distributed databases and filesystems, and for processing this data, such as Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark. You will also gain an appreciation of the social implications of the continued rapid development of Big Data tools and applications. All these topics and methods have become essential concepts and approaches that can be used by data scientists in many sectors including retail, economics, finance, media and healthcare.

* You will study one elective module.  You will be asked to indicate your elective preference in a survey at the beginning of the programme. Depending on the students' preference and enrolment number, selected elective(s) will be offered in each academic year.

Assessment

Group and individual reports, portfolio, etc. No exam.

Career Prospects

Graduating from Northumbria with a BSc (Hons) in Computing prepares you for a wide range of technical and analytical roles across the tech sector. Whether you want to build systems, analyse data, or explore machine learning, this course offers the ideal springboard.

Typical roles for graduates include: Software Developer / Engineer, Web and App Developer, Systems Analyst, Data Analyst, Machine Learning Specialist, IT Project Coordinator.

As well as enhancing your technical toolkit, you can develop transferable skills that employers look for across industries—such as collaborative teamwork, communication, creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and research analysis.

Further Studies

• Graduates may choose to continue their studies at postgraduate level in computing, data science, human computer interaction, or artificial intelligence.

• Graduates of this top-up degree programme can enjoy a 20% alumni tuition fee discount when they study a Master’s degree at Northumbria University’s UK campuses (London or Newcastle). Terms and Conditions apply. 

Enquiries
 

Connect with SHAPE Community

Connect with Northumbria Community