Courses and structure

Credits and levels of learning

An undergraduate honours degree is made up of 360 credits – 120 at Level 4, 120 at Level 5 and 120 at Level 6. If you're a full-time student, you will usually take Level 4 courses in the first year, Level 5 in the second, and Level 6 courses in your final year.

A standard course is worth 30 credits. Some programmes also contain 15-credit half courses or can be made up of higher-value parts, such as a dissertation or Major Project.

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Level 4

First year courses get you developing real world software from the very beginning. You will learn technical programming and web development skills while at the same time working in teams to develop complete software products.

You will develop web and mobile apps that fulfill the needs of you target market, ranging from a website for a local business to an iPhone app advertising a fantasy virtual band. You will be encouraged to work independently and think creatively about your target market and how to design software for them.

In the second term, you will undertake the Computing in Business module that focuses both on business and technical aspects of Business Computing by analysing the technologies used, and business theories applied, by successful businesses across the world.

Level 5

Courses in the second year deepen your technical abilities with courses on advanced programming, mobile development and databases, but also introduce you to practical entrepreneurship skills. You will deepen your real world development skills with a large scale project developed as a team in an environment that mirrors industry practices.

Our degrees include an optional business placement year between the second and final year of study. Although we encourage you to take the opportunity of a placement year, you can also complete your degree in a straight three years.

Level 6

Your final year will prepare you for a major project, in which you apply your technological and business skills to solve real-world problems in innovative and practical ways. You will learn project management together with specialist computing topics from a range of optional courses. You will then undertake your final major project in which you will develop a business plan for a software or hardware product and then go on to implement that product.

Assessment Modular: assignments, tests, laboratory exercises, exams, final year project. If you opt for an industrial placement year, your placement tutor will assess your work. If you complete the placement year successfully, you earn the endorsement ‘with work experience' on your degree certificate.

Learning and teaching

Courses are taught by a combination of lectures, tutorials, workshops and laboratory sessions. These will introduce you to ideas and concepts related to specific topics, and you'll be encouraged to discuss and debate the issues raised. This will enhance your academic knowledge of the subject, improve your communication skills, and enable you to develop high level practical and technical skills in computing.

But this is just a small proportion of what we expect you to do on the degree. For each hour of taught learning, we expect you to complete another 5-6 hours of independent study. This typically involves carrying out research, preparing topics for discussion, or producing project work. 

This emphasis on independent learning is very important at Goldsmiths. We don't just want you to accept what we tell you without question. We want you to be inspired to find out more, to develop your own ideas, and to find the evidence that will back them up. Independent study requires excellent motivation and time management skills. These skills will stay with you for life, and are the kind of transferable skills that are highly sought after by employers. 

Learning and teaching on this degree will take place through:

• Lectures
• Tutorials
• Workshops
• Laboratory sessions
• Independent learning
• Presentations
• Assessments

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Find out more about these learning and teaching approaches.

Skills and careers

There is a shortage of graduates who have the confidence to apply new technologies in creative ways; a computing degree from Goldsmiths will enable you to do this.

Our degrees aim to equip you with a wide range of skills to meet the current demands of the industry and increase your career prospects.

Industrial placement year

Our degree programmes include an optional Industrial Placement Year between the second and third year of study. This offers you the invaluable opportunity to develop the practical skills and real world experience that is sought after by employers. You're supported throughout your placement year by a placement tutor, who provides you with guidance and liaises between you and your employer.

Skills

Studying computing at Goldsmiths will provide you with technical skills including:

• a strong understanding of how to design, develop and apply software in all areas of commerce and industry
• an awarenesss of the fundamentals of computing (hardware, software, architecture and operating systems)
• an understanding of programming languages
• a clear sense of the issues involved in building and maintaining reliable software for the sophisticated demands of today's market and for the software industry as it develops throughout the 21st century
• an understanding of the social context and visual design aspects of software development together with the technical skills of programming

Our degrees have a large proportion of practical work in which you must deliver software projects, both individually and in groups. This mirrors as closely as possible a real world work environment. These projects develop your technical skills but also require you to tackle the broader aspects of the software development process, such as understanding users' needs and requirements and the design of interfaces on a number of platforms – from web pages to touch screen phones.

You'll also gain skills in teamwork, creative thinking, report writing, time management and organisation, presenting reasoned arguments to a range of audiences, and retrieval of information – all of which are sought by graduate employers.

Careers

The explosive and ever-growing use of technology in business and commerce means that there's a whole range of different career possibilities for computing graduates. In terms of job opportunities and salaries, the IT sector is well ahead of most other industrial and commercial sectors.

Where do Goldsmiths computing graduates work?

Some of the recent graduate level careers for computing graduates have included:

• Application programmer
• Mobile App developer
• Web developer
• Video game developer
• Film special effects and post-production
• Computer music/sound engineer
• Interface designer
• Systems analyst
• Database manager

Employers include:

• FDM Academy
• Hepco Motion
• ACL
• Jigsaw Systems Ltd
• KCom
• Sanna Systems Ltd

Source: Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2010

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Further information

• Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths

The Department of Computing

It’s the perfect time to get into computing. And at Goldsmiths we’re offering our own particular brand. From prototyping becoming policy to the role of video in interactive media, computing here is interdisciplinary; we want to develop the discipline and the world around it.

As a department we’re interested in a certain kind of study: one that's founded on creativity, independence and learning by doing. So as a student here you'll really get to create the software you want to create – it’s why you’ll be working on your own projects from the start of your degree. You’ll work individually and in teams in ways that mirror industry practice.

To develop the skills you’ll need within today's creative industries you have to be using the latest technologies, so we have up-to-date lab facilities, equipped with the latest software development environments. Everything you learn is backed up by a rich base of knowledge – our research was classified as of ‘internationally excellent quality’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

We want you to graduate with a computing degree that has weight in the real world so you'll be taught to apply computing to a whole range of real-life situations and to many industries within the creative arts and business sectors. And, because you apply computing to other subjects such as music and media when you’re here, you’ll be able to think on your feet and adapt within this evolving field.

At Goldsmiths you can:

• Choose from a range of undergraduate degrees that have been designed to suit your specific interests
• Hear from guest speakers within the industry and graduates already working in the field through our Employability Lecture Series
• Be part of an exciting, hands-on department – one of the leading departments for computing in music and the arts in Europe – allowing you to develop your own software and discover your own specialism
• Take your skills straight into industry – our graduates have been employed by Atkins, Disturb Media and Sony
• Gain the software engineering skills crucial to today’s industries by taking an optional work placement year – this ensures your degree title includes the statement ‘with Work Experience’
• Learn through small group tutorials where you can get personalised help from experts who are active researchers developing cutting-edge technology
• Live and learn within a diverse community in a dynamic global city and access major cultural venues including Tate Modern and the British Museum

Facilities

We have excellent computing facilities for teaching and laboratory work. There are four department laboratories containing 90 Macs and PCs equipped with a substantial amount of the latest software used in the IT and creative industries.

Staff

The staff who teach you are all actively engaged in quality research, and this means that you'll be taught by experts who apply their skills to developing cutting edge technology. Our teaching is strongly focused on applying academically rigorous concepts to real world situations. 

Find out more about staff in the Department of Computing.

About the Institute of Management Studies

People. Behaviour. Change. You need to be creative to manage all three. 

How do you measure sentiment on social media? Which technologies do you need to launch a business? How does colour affect what we buy? What does effective leadership look like? How does coaching add value to the organisation? These are the kinds of questions we’re exploring at Goldsmiths’ Institute of Management Studies.

We believe innovation happens where business and creativity collide. And as an institute, we have a distinct approach. We’re fusing Goldsmiths' academic rigour and creative culture with industry-informed research, interactive group learning and core strengths in psychology so you can develop your own mode of management.

As a student here you’ll get to the heart of how we make decisions, learn through the experience of others, and investigate how organisations work at all levels.

You’ll look at areas such as developing and retaining talented people in modern organisations, applying occupational psychology to organisational change and development, and how to influence people in an ethical way.

We want you to be able to adapt and stand out in today’s economy, so we make sure you study a near real-time curriculum that’s rooted in current research and driven by what’s happening in companies now.

You’ll gain the skills to develop and realise an idea and tailor your degree to your own situation. And because our programmes are broad in scope, whether you want to create digital products, manage human capital, or run a start-up, you can lead within any area, and at any stage of your professional life.

Why choose Management Studies at Goldsmiths? 

We’re research active. A rich knowledge base and solid academic foundation inform everything you learn, and reflect what’s happening within today’s industries – whether it’s an investment bank in the City, a multinational consultancy or a Silicon Roundabout start-up.

We’re holistic. We blend theory, research and practice, so you get a comprehensive model of how to succeed in your career. You also have the freedom and the support to test your ideas in different settings and get inside industry. Through valuable links with TechCity and close interaction with tutors working within a range of sectors, you have the opportunity to secure a competitive placement and analyse current management models.

We’re supportive. As a student here you won’t be dismissed for having a radical idea. And you’ll have the chance to hear from everyone in the room. Our student masterclasses give you the opportunity to listen and learn from the experiences of others so you can apply different perspectives to the same problem and find new ways of doing things.

At Goldsmiths you can: 

• Choose from a range of Masters degrees covering areas including Digital Entrepreneurship, Occupational Psychology, Global Leadership, Consumer Behaviour and the Management of Innovation
  
  
• Be part of a powerful creative network of individuals from a range of diverse global backgrounds 

• Be in the perfect place to test your theories out in the real world – with a global financial centre easily accessible from campus, you can conduct research within the organisation you’re learning about in the lecture 

• Be part of a supportive institute giving you the skills to grow and thrive in any profession, in any role, and at any stage in your career 

• Benefit from strong cross-sector industry links and guidance from leading academics in subjects ranging from psychology to design and from consumer behaviour to computing 

• Access the most up-to-date theory, research, and practice, ensuring the skills you learn are always underpinned by expert knowledge

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