Computer Science: University of Oxford

Computer Science at Oxford

The course at Oxford concentrates on bridging theory and practice, including a wide variety of hardware and software technologies and their applications. The course is designed to equip students with the fundamental understanding and practical skills needed by the potential leaders of a demanding profession. However, this by no means limits our graduates in their choice of career: like other courses at Oxford, it is a training in logical thought and expression, and can lead to employment in many different fields.

The course

There are two Computer Science degrees, the three-year BA and the four-year MComputer Science. You do not need to decide when you apply, and you will not be asked until your third year to choose between the degrees.

Admission requirements

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate...

A typical weekly timetable

During the first part of the course, your work is divided between lectures (about ten a week), tutorials (about two a week), and practical classes (about two sessions a week). In addition, you will be expected to spend a considerable amount of time on private study. As the course progresses, you will begin to work in small classes on more specialised topics. You will spend a substantial amount of time in your third and fourth years working on a project that counts towards your degree.

written test

All candidates must sit an Aptitude Test in Mathematics on 5 November 2008, usually in their own school or college. This is a test of mathematical and analytical skills, particularly those relevant to computer science. The mathematical knowledge required will be common to all A-level mathematics syllabuses. One of the questions is multiple choice with several parts. No aids, calculators, dictionaries or formulae sheets are allowed.Overseas candidates who cannot attend an interview will be asked to send a sample of written work in mathematics, preferably a mock examination script. In addition, they will be asked to sit the written test.

Course summary

1st year Courses

Core courses:

• Functional programming
• Data structures and algorithms
• Imperative programming
• Digital hardware
• Calculus and linear algebra

Discrete mathematics, logic and proof Probability

Assessment

• Five written papers, plus practicals

2nd year Courses

Core courses (38%):

• Object-oriented programming
• Concurrent systems
• Model of Computation

Options (62%) including:

• Computer architecture
• Computer graphics
• Compilers and programming languages
• Advanced data structures and algorithms
• Formal program design
• Networks and operating systems
• Numerical analysis

Assessment

• Four written papers, plus practicals

3rd year Courses

Options (67%) including:

• Artificial intelligence
• Computer security
• Object-oriented design
• Databases
• Bioinformatics and computational biology
• Logic of multi-agent information flow
• Integer programming
• Computational complexity
• Further 2nd-year options

Project work (33%)

Assessment

• Three written papers, plus practicals and project

4th year Courses

Options (67%) such as:

• Computer animation
• Machine learning
• Information retrieval
• Computational linguistics
• Requirements
• Quantum computing
• Theory of data and knowledge bases
• Computer-aided formal verification
• Automata logic and games

Project work (33%))

Assessment

• Two written papers, plus practicals and a project