BSc Computer Science *Updated* (Computer Science At Queens University Belfast)

Name: The Duke

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Product:	Computer Science At Queens University Belfast
Date:	16.08.00 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Modern, Teaches fundamentals, Fairly well equipped

Disadvantages: Little help with placements, Should offer more basic modules, Consider themselves to be better than others?

I'm about to enter the second half of my final year here at Queens University, Belfast and so far I've enjoyed it most of the time. The course is divided up into 4 years, with the 3rd year being a year out (more on this later) unless you are a mature student, then you must do a foundation year, which I have to say I considered a waste of time and money on my part.

*** The Course (description) ***


~~ The foundation year is designed to bring everyone up to the same educational standard, and so people who have been out of education for a while, or people who didn?t perform as well in their A levels are put into this "starter year" to help them in the degree proper. During this year, you are expected to take six modules - four of which are compulsory, and three modules per semester. This pattern is the same from first to final year at Queens. These are two computer programming modules and two maths modules to bring everyone up to roughly A level standard in maths. The programming language, Pascal, may sound like quite an old language (and it is!) but Queen's base their course on teaching the fundamentals of programming which can then be translated which ever language you may end up using

~~ For the first proper year, you are eased in gently. Again, four out of the six modules are computer based (i.e. compulsory), and you can choose whatever you like for the other two within reason i.e. timetables etc. I think the course could be improved by offering a few more basic computer based modules - maybe HTML, basic networking etc. for people who have no practical computer experience (which Queens claims their course is tailored for) so that when they come to teach more advanced subjects, the students are aware of lots of jargon and basic ideas in computing. During this year, students are introduced to their first "proper" programming language - Java.

~~ Level Two (or second year) of the course is a lot mo
re interesting. There are more programming modules, and students are finally introduced to things like HTML and web design, networking (both on a small, and global scale) as well as some "duller" subjects like software engineering and databases. As preparation for the placement year ("Year of Professional Experience" to give it its' posh title) you are required to take a module explaining how to write letters and CVs, as well as attend talks from members of companies explaining what is expected from people in real world situations. This year is exceedingly tough, and you are also expected to find your own placement (with only a little help from the university, I may add). If you wish to be slightly different in your choice of placement e.g. leave Northern Ireland, then you will find the university almost useless in this regard.

The placements for the year out are becoming more and more difficult for both the university and the student to find. The rise in popularity of the course (in general, not just at Queens) coupled with the general downturn in the I.T. industry worldwide means that there are more and more students taking the subject, with only a finite number of placement positions available. One thing I've noticed is that there is not a lot of variety in the placements either - if you're interested in something like Web development or something that doesn't involve too much programming then you might be disappointed. My advice (and you should be doing this anyway...) is to score as high as possible in your very first year exams - it is these marks that will be used to get you your placement. I also suggest that you start looking for a placement as soon as you have finished your Level One exams. That would mean hunting out your placement officer, and maintaining contact with him throughout the summer - if you can get your placement sorted before the end of your first semester, then you'd be in a better position t
han most students.

What has happened this year is that the university has been forced to introduce a new degree to the Computer Science department. This new degree is exactly the same as the one above, except that the Year of Professional Experience is no longer compulsory. You are still expected to apply for a placement, but if you are unable to get one, then you can still enter final year directly, and attain your degree. It's simply a matter of changing courses, which should be no more than signing a piece of paper.

~~ Final year is final year, funnily enough. You will be required to give a presentation on your year out (if applicable) and you will be required to do a programming project as well as a number of other modules. This year contributes 75% towards your degree (with Level 2 being 25%). Like the other years, you are required to take six modules, and the final year project module is spread across the whole year with no exams, only a "write up" or dissertation to hand in. I'd advise that you perhaps weighted your module taking so that you take 4 modules for the first semester which gives you breathing space during the second. The first semester contains "whole" modules, whereas the second semester seems to contain more "half modules" which unfortunately, will mean more exams in May.

*** The Environment ***

The Computer Science department is based away from the central campus building at Malone Road (only a few minutes walk from the main building) in the Bernard Crossland Building (BCB). It's a pleasant enough building, although you'll find yourself having to go to one of the Engineering buildings (only a few seconds walk away), or down to the main building for a lot of your lectures. It's a pity there weren't a few more teaching rooms in the BCB, but it's not a new building, and certainly wasn't designed for a course the size of Computer Science (5 years of ap
prox. 140 people, plus MSc and PhD students and staff). It would also be nice if there were some private locker facilities on offer. As a student who lives at home (it takes me about 45 mins to get to university) I spend a lot of time walking to and from university. Sometimes, obviously, it rains and I arrive into university for a full days worth of lectures with soaking wet clothes. I would really like to be able to store my wet coat in a locker until it was time to leave rather than carry it around all day. Another important bit is the fact that the BCB is literally 10 seconds walk from two pubs.

*** Level of equipment ***

There are a few hundred PCs (Queens used to run Apple Macintosh's until they were forced to "downgrade" to PCs) in two labs. One lab is bright shiny and up to date with fast PCs and large monitors, the other is equipped with PCs that are older and have 14" monitors. They should at least upgrade the monitors which are very old, and are surely causing eyestrain with their inability to display properly. I think it would be nice if Queens offered one or two machines with ZIP disks, and other high capacity (re)writable media. I think there are only 2 machines in the whole department with this capability (CD-R), but I've never actually gotten them to work properly. With the type of thing the university is asking us to do, having a few machines with this facility would help matters as students could theoretically take work home without having to download 30Mb worth of software over a 56k modem.

*** The Staff ***

Here's my bugbear. The staff ranges from excellent to very poor indeed. The clerical staff is without fault - helpful and friendly. It's the academics that can be problematic. Each student is assigned an Advisor of Studies (AoS) to act as a source of information for all aspects of university life (but specifically the course). It took me until my third AoS before I finally got s
omeone who was reliable, knowledgeable and approachable - the other people had been severely lacking in at least one of these areas, and had left the university anyway due to retirement or "proper jobs".

Lecturers are again, a mixed bag. Some are without fault, but some are simply intolerable with their attitudes towards students. The level of teaching varies depending on course offered and who's teaching. Generally, the more technical courses are taught by the least effective lecturers because they assume students have a greater level of knowledge than they actually have. Generally, the programming courses are well taught because they have a structure in place from the first year to teach you the programming basics in a basic language (for me it was Pascal) before going on to something more advanced (Java). Finally, there were some courses that have been "contracted out" for want of a better phrase, and I can't recommend these at all - the lecturers taking these simply don't care about the students (in my humble opinion, of course) and have been known to tweak the timetable so they can get home earlier on a Friday afternoon whilst ignoring some students who then have a timetable clash ("It doesn't count - it clashes with a Mathematics module"), and on at least one occasion, have lied to students.

The problem is that, while surveys are carried out again and again to see what students thought of courses, lecturers etc. the results of these are never taken into consideration. When filling in the survey about the lecturer above that caused the timetable switch (he didn't get very good reviews, by the way), he then went on to blame the students for asking for the switch (they didn't). On another occasion, a lecturer who was marked badly for being unintelligible, and setting exams which were more technical than the course/notes he taught, was given the task of teaching the more advanced course to the
same class at the start of the next university year (rumours are he wanted to prove he could teach, but the same thing happened the next year).

*** The course (content) ***

For the first few years, the course content is good - lots of basic stuff to set you up for what's to come. The early programming courses are excellent, and the early architecture course has the potential to be a good course also. What could be included would be more basic web development - good design, basic HTML etc. for those who want to go in that general direction (but Queens seems to consider that type of profession to be below it).

The courses offered during the latter years are where I would have my doubts. They seem to be far too specialised in subjects that very few students will actually use, but Queen stress great importance upon them.

Personally, I think Queens should take a long hard look at the types of course they're offering, and tailor it so that the degree as a whole becomes more useful in the real world today, rather than producing students who are qualified in a small sector of the industry.

I think at the end of the day, that's the problem with Queens Computer Science course - about 10 years ago, they were one of the best universities in the UK for the subject and now they're not. But they keep acting like they are, and trying to provide students with courses they're never going to use is a waste of time and money for both university and student alike.

**Note**
I've given this a 3 star rating. Generally, I think it's probably 4 star, but seeing as I've had some trouble with aspects of the course (which no-one else seems to have had) I feel I have to rate it lower, and with my different outlook (being a mature student) on the university and course.

For anyone who might want further information on Queens University go to:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/

For more detailed
information on Queens Computer science department, see:
<br>
http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/

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