Software Engineering
Entry requirements
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
from at least 2 A-Levels Five GCSEs A*-C (9-4) including English Language and Mathematics or equivalent.
About this course
As a Software Engineering student at DMU, you will develop the technical skills needed to design and build software that is used in everyday devices and systems across our homes, workplaces and communities.
This course is a specialist pathway within Computer Science sharing similar subjects for the first two years of study. Final year study includes a distinctive focus on building software across different platforms including contemporary mobile devices and embedded systems.
You will also learn about the structure of organisations, gaining insight into the commercial context in which systems are commissioned and deployed.as well as introduced to computing ethics and law.
*Key features
*
- Tailor your learning to your career ambitions by choosing from a wide range of optional final-year modules, including: Functional Software Development, Data Mining, and Front-end Web Development.
- Join our thriving student societies to build on what you learn on the course and to develop your interests and skills outside of teaching time. They include the Games Society, Robotics Club and Google’s Developer Student Club.
- Benefit from an international experience with our DMU Global programme. Software Engineering students have networked at software companies in Berlin and met tech entrepreneurs in San Francisco.
- Through block teaching, you will focus on one subject at a time instead of several at once. This means that you will be able to focus closely on each subject and absorb your learning material in more depth, whilst working more closely with your tutors and course mates.
- Prepare for a career in the thriving software industry. Our graduates have gone on to work for companies such as LHA ASRA Group, Lorien, MISCO, Oracle, Royal Bank of Scotland and Sainsbury’s.
- Computer Science and Informatics at DMU is ranked third among modern UK universities for the quality of its research in the latest Research Excellence Framework evaluation.
Modules
First year
Core modules:
• Computer Ethics and Law
• Elements of Computing
Topics include processes, file systems, memory management, and shell scripting. The computer networks topics include network architectures, data communication fundamentals, transmission schemes and technologies, LAN protocols, and Internet Protocols. The computer architecture topics include CPU components, number representation systems, and an appreciation of assembler programming
• Programming
• Computational Modelling
• Second year
Core modules:
• Multi-tier Web Applications
• Object-Oriented Software Design and Development–
• Data Structures and Algorithms
• Organisations, Project Management and Research
Third year
Core modules:
• Computing Project
• Software Development Methods
• Rigorous Systems
You will also choose from a variety of optional modules to complete your final year. The options available may change from year to year.
Assessment methods
During the course you will benefit from learning informed by research. Our leading research Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility provides the basis for the ethical computing content of the course, ensuring that your learning is at the cutting edge of recent developments.
Our Software Technology Research Laboratory provides material for the final year module on rigorous systems and has helped to develop the second year concurrent and distributed systems topics. The Cyber Security Centre (CSC) has developed computer security material for the course content that is relevant to practice.
During the first year you will be able to attend guest lectures from invited speakers from industry and academia that are part of the CSC’s guest lecture series.
In the first year, you will normally attend around 12-15 hours of timetabled taught sessions each week, split across a variety of lectures, small group activities and practical laboratory work.
A variety of assessment methods are used on the course, including short tests to provide rapid feedback and formal exams, held at the end of each academic year. Your written and academic reading skills will be developed in the ethics and law topics and you will develop a portfolio that will give you experience of practical development.
In the second year, the emphasis moves towards more substantive practical assignments and you will practise modern software development techniques. Research and presentation skills are also important in the second year.
In the final year, the individual software development project forms a major part of the practical assessment.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Leicester Campus
Computing, Engineering and Media
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Computer science
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
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Computer science
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
This is a newly-classified subject area for this kind of data, so we don’t currently have very much information to display or analyse yet. The subject is linked to important and growing computing industries, and over time we can expect more students to study them — there could be opportunities that open up for graduates in these subjects as the economy develops over the next few years.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Computing
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£23k
£28k
£30k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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