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Cybersecurity with Foundation Year

Entry requirements


A level

E,E-C,C

A completed Access diploma

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

PPP

UCAS Tariff

32-48

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subject

Computer science

In a constantly evolving field, there’s a growing shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals with the up-to-the-minute expertise needed to keep on top of the game. This cutting-edge course equips you with the knowledge and skills employers are looking for. Careers in the cybersecurity field offer huge potential for skilled graduates.

This wide-ranging course is designed to develop the diverse skillset you need to identify and manage physical, natural and electronic security breaches and violations in all areas of cyberspace. Our cutting-edge teaching and training techniques give you a thorough understanding of security processes and practices as well as the complexities and challenges associated with information security; the legal requirements around information-security domains; and post-incident analysis techniques. Work-based learning and placements enable you to put theory into practice, as you build your ability to understand and analyse threat factors and multi-stage cyber attacks, and put controls in place to mitigate risk and impact.

**Foundation Year**
In the foundation year you will study three days per week. The focus will be on academic writing skills and numeracy, plus subject-specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree. The course has been designed to develop your skills and to prepare you for entry onto the first year of your chosen course. It provides a balance between content related to your chosen subject and the range of wider skills required for undergraduate study. This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will be required to pass the foundation year in order to progress to the first year of your bachelor’s degree. This course is ideal for those who do not meet our standard entry requirements or those with a non-standard educational background. It will allow you to graduate with a full undergraduate degree in your chosen subject in four years.

**Why choose this course?**
- It is fully aligned with BCS, CESG and IISP requirements, making your qualification highly relevant to a range of employers

- You learn from a dedicated team of cybersecurity experts, trainers and active researchers

- Learning approaches are practice-based and include work-based and placement activities as well as interactive demonstrations by academic staff and guest speakers

- You apply your technical cybersecurity skills using secure virtualised and containerised environments

- Your degree qualification balances technical and management skills, enabling you to enter careers across a wide range of security contexts

Modules

Areas of study include:
- Databases and Computer Networks
- Mathematics and Concepts for Computational Thinking
- Principles of Information Security
- Principles of Programming and Data Structures
- Cyber Defence and Information Governance
- Ethical Hacking
- Information Security Management and Emerging Technologies
- Switching and Routing
- Network Programming
- Wireless Communications and Networking
- Agile Project Management
- Incident Response
- Undergraduate Project in Cybersecurity

Every effort is made to ensure this information is accurate at the point of publication on the UCAS website. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to our website.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Luton Campus

Department:

School of Computer Science and Technology

Read full university profile

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.

59%
Computer science

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

59%
Staff make the subject interesting
60%
Staff are good at explaining things
68%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
71%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

61%
Library resources
76%
IT resources
75%
Course specific equipment and facilities
53%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

36%
UK students
64%
International students
90%
Male students
10%
Female students
71%
2:1 or above
36%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
E

After graduation


The stats in this section 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

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.

£23,000
med
Average annual salary
82%
low
Employed or in further education
66%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

35%
Information technology and telecommunications professionals
20%
Information technology technicians
7%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers

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.

Computer science

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£27k

£27k

£29k

£29k

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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Lower entry requirements
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Course location and department:

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

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:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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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?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here