Data Science with Foundation Year

Our BSc Data Science will give you a strong foundation in mathematics, statistics and computer science and the skills and knowledge to tackle real-world problems. You will learn cutting-edge techniques for collecting, storing, analysing and visualising data, and how to extract information to inform decision-making across various organisations, essential for a career as a data scientist or data-driven software developer.

Why choose this course?

- This course offers you a balance between learning current skills, which are essential in today's marketplace, and a deep understanding of the fundamentals, which provide a solid basis for long-lasting professional success.

- Whilst studying this course, you will uncover valuable insights from data, a skill highly sought after by employers across all sectors of the economy including business, finance, manufacturing and the public sector.

- You will also consider social, professional and organisational issues that play a key role in understanding how data science contributes to and shape the future of businesses and organisations.

What you will learn

Data science combines data analytics, applied statistics, computer science and software engineering. You will gain a broad knowledge of computing and mathematics and acquire strong programming and data analysis skills using Python, R and Java - the most popular programming languages used by data scientists today.

How you will learn

Teaching may include formal lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical classes, while the Foundation Year is composed of group work, individual tutorial work and practical lab work. Many computing modules include laboratory-based exercises. All lectures are recorded, and materials are made available online.

For the majority of the programming modules, we adopt a 'flipped classroom' approach, where you watch short videos and perform appropriate reading before the class, making this an active rather than passive learning experience.

This course has an evening timetable with classes taking place in the evening. It is available to study full- or part-time.

Foundation Year

If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.

Highlights

- Our world-class research activity informs our teaching and we provide a stimulating teaching and research environment for both part-time and full-time students.

- Birkbeck established one of the first computing departments in the UK in 1957 and was a pioneer in data science studies, database technologies and eCommerce.

- Our high-quality teaching and research foster our interactions with business, public and third sector organisations, offering our students unique opportunities in their studies.

- We have modern computing laboratories, with a total of 133 workstations. The labs have projection facilities and are air-conditioned. Our wide range of software runs on a number of platforms including Unix, Windows and Linux. The local area network is a switched gigabit/10gigabit ethernet. Our computers are connected to the SuperJANET academic network.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this BSc, you will have gained important transferable skills, including:

- problem-solving

- analytical thinking

- developing effective communication

- teamwork

- project management.

Graduates can pursue career paths as data scientists, programmers or software engineers. Job opportunities exist in software companies, healthcare, banking, insurance, policing and tech companies as, for example:

- analytics associates/data scientists

- quantitative analysts

- machine learning engineers for artificial intelligence software

- graduate software developers.