Leading Scottish University for Employment

The School of Computing at RGU is at the leading edge of innovation in computing and technology. Located in Aberdeen, the centre of the Europe’s Oil Capital, The Robert Gordon University has been crowned both the best new university in Scotland and the leading Scottish university for graduate employment by the Times Good University Guide 2008.

The School is renowned for its applied research and its pioneering approaches to education. Graduates of our courses are highly sought after by industry and commerce, with graduates working for companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and The Royal Bank of Scotland. The area includes mainstream software houses, IT providers in major oil-related companies, specialist software consultancies, and venture capital start-ups. 30% of Scotland’s software engineers work here.

The Times Good University Guide 2008 says, "Work placements, lasting up to a year, are the norm, helping an employment record that has been the best in Scotland for four years."  Our placements office assists students in organising optional placements. An innovative Masters programme with integrated placements assists students to gain excellent employment experience. As well as this having a financial benefit, this leads to joint project work, the potential for two further years of employment following graduation under the Scottish Fresh Talent scheme, and enhanced employment prospects.

Innovative Learning Environment
All of our courses balance theory and practice enabling you to develop advanced skills in relevant software such as Java, .net, database SQL, and 3D graphics tools. Our career-ready graduates benefit from degree programmes designed in partnership with industry and the professional bodies, delivered by staff whose expertise is at the leading edge of these technologies. These practical skills are applied in real projects, giving you the management and team capability employers seek.

To support our extensive teaching portfolio and research activities the School is equipped a variety of state-of-the-art learning environments.

Undergraduate Courses:
BSc (hons) Business Information Systems*
BSc (hons) Computer Science*
BSc (hons) Computing for Graphics and Animation*
BSc (hons) Computing for Internet and Multimedia*
BSc (hons) Information Systems Technology*
BSc (hons) Multimedia Development (year 3 entry only)
* provides the opportunity to undertake a built in industrial placement as part of the course.

Undergraduate Computing at RGU starts with our innovative Foundation Year, which provides a broad base of practical skills based on a problem solving approach to software development.

Postgraduate Courses:
MSc Computing: Information Engineering*
MSc Computing: Information Engineering (with Network Management)*
* provides the opportunity to undertake a built in industrial placement as part of the course.

These courses provide advanced technical skills of data mining, distributed systems, and electronic commerce. They enable students to become specialists in the design and implementation of advanced information systems by building on an undergraduate degree in computing.

MSc Computing: Software Technology
MSc Computing: Software Technology (with Network Management)

These courses foster in-depth skills and capabilities in modern software development methods and tools, as well as the skills to plan and monitor development projects to ensure a quality product. Students build on their knowledge from an undergraduate degree from a non-computing discipline.

MSc Information Systems

This course is for graduates from non-computing and non-electronic engineering disciplines: individuals who are looking to be employed in the general field of IT or who want to use that knowledge in the field of their original degree. Software development, databases and internet systems are our main focus.

Student Profile - Euan Garden
Since graduating from Robert Gordon University Euan has become a leading member of the Microsoft Corporate team at their Seattle headquarters.  He is an evangelist for the SQL Server product with key customers. He has responsibility for designing, building, testing and releasing tools and APIs for Microsoft SQL Server. This is a product that makes over $1billion per annum.

His technical skills in this enterprise database environment have been founded upon the knowledge from his course at RGU, but Euan says “probably one of the key skills I learned on the course was teamwork - I manage a team of Software Design Engineers and Project Managers.”

Research
The School of Computing has a reputation for high quality and innovative research. The School welcomes applications from full and part-time candidates to its research programme. Research in the School follows four main themes, PhD and MRes programmes are available in these areas:

• Knowledge based systems
• Computational Intelligence
• Cognitive Engineering
• Information Systems

The Robert Gordon University is a member of the newly formed Northern Research Partnership in Engineering (NRP) with Dundee and Aberdeen Universities (www.northscotland-research.ac.uk). The School of Computing contributes to the NRP Joint Research Institute in Computational Systems, which is directed by Prof. Patrik O’Brian Holt (RGU). So collaborative projects with other universities and industrial partners are encouraged.

The School has a rapidly growing research reputation and a vibrant graduate school. Doctoral students undertake research under the supervision of a dedicated academic and supported by a research team. A £1M purpose-designed Computing Technologies Centre provides an outstanding research environment.

More Information

For further details of the University visit www.rgu.ac.uk.

The next thing to do is talk to us. Simply call us on +44 1224 262 726 or e-mail admissions@rgu.ac.uk quoting SET/GCC as the reference.

International Students should call us on +44 1224 262726 or e-mail international@rgu.ac.uk quoting SET/GCC as the reference.