Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Data Sciences

at Heriot-Watt University - Edinburgh Campus United Kingdom

This course provides graduates with advanced mathematical skills and fluency in their chosen language, offering a valuable combination of technical expertise and linguistic excellence. Mathematical and language skills will be enhanced by studying mathematics for a year at one of the foreign partner universities. Languages on offer are French (G1R1), German (G1R2) and Spanish (G1R4). Graduates in mathematics and languages are consistently near the top of graduate employment tables, and the coupling of disciplines in this degree course ensures a highly marketable qualification.

The postgraduate course in Urban Strategies and Design is delivered jointly by the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA) of the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University.

This course addresses the current need for interdisciplinary knowledge. It encourages the adoption of a comprehensive approach towards the delivery of socially-sustainable urban transformation, from local-specific to strategic metropolitan and regional interventions. Students study the wide and diverse range of social, economic, and political processes that determine the contemporary urban environment, and acquire the tools and skills to propose urban projects of diverse scales and specificities.

The City of Edinburgh offers an urban laboratory for project- and site visit-based exploration of current urban design issues in the UK. Furthermore, the city’s historic 'Geddesian' planning links, and contemporary international links with urban-focused institutions and bodies provide a strong platform from which to support student-led, location-based research projects.

Heriot-Watt Mechanical Engineering degrees are ranked 1st in Scotland and top 10 in the UK by the Guardian University Guide 2020. An industrial panel are involved to ensure the course content reflects the changing needs of industry and that our graduates have the knowledge and practical skills required to successfully gain employment.

Student teaching benefits from our strong industrial links, in particular the involvement of the industrial panel in the assessment of 4th year design projects, providing a realistic client scenario.

Programme Structure:
The first two years of the degree provide a grounding in the core disciplines of mechanical engineering, which allows students to make an informed choice of the options in the following years. An individual project forms part of Year 4. Students can graduate at the end of year 4 with a BEng Mechanical Engineering, or progress to the MEng programme, if academic grades are suitable. The 5-year MEng degree is the standard route towards Chartered Engineering professional qualification.

Heriot-Watt University's Masters degree in Business Psychology is the most established of its kind in Europe. In this MSc, core modules from Business Psychology are blended with expertise from the field of Intercultural Communication.

Business Psychology with Intercultural Communication is a specialist Masters degree which offers professionals and graduates with backgrounds in Arts and Humanities, Business Management and Psychology the opportunity to gain a particularly employable skillset suited to working with multinational organisations.

This programme combines Business Psychology's specialist focus on leadership, diversity, change, and organisational culture, with Intercultural Communication’s focus on written and verbal communication in cross-cultural professional contexts. The development of these specialist skills will put graduates in the perfect position to make a positive impact on the performance, communication and culture of global organisations.

Our BSc Computer Science degree focuses on constructing robust and usable systems. As well as looking at cutting edge tools and techniques, it’s designed to help you build the next generation of software tools that other system constructors will use. The course aims to give a well integrated balance of theoretical underpinnings and practical experience, strongly informed by the research expertise of our academic staff.

All Year 3 students take part in a year-long group project, where they co-operate in tackling a large, realistic problem. Year 4 students conduct a major, year-long, individual dissertation project.

You can take advantage of our international campuses by taking part in an Inter-Campus Transfer. This gives you the opportunity to study Computer Science at our Dubai campus for a semester or a year.

This degree combines material from the Mathematics and Actuarial Science courses, together with specialist actuarial and statistical skills. It also takes a wide-ranging approach to other areas of advanced mathematics. Year one focuses on core topics in algebra, calculus and statistics, along with an introduction to finance and economics. Year two builds upon this by introducing topics in actuarial science. The third and final years offer a range of options – allowing you to choose a combination which best suits your interests.

Data science today is becoming increasingly important within the actuarial field, and Heriot-Watt has developed this unique new programme to meet this growing actuarial demand.

Taking our MSc in Actuarial Management with Data Science is a great way to speed your progress to this most prestigious of careers - it's designed to take you almost all of the way to qualification. Our MSc in Actuarial Management is an established and successful programme covering the more advanced actuarial subjects.The MSc in Actuarial Management with Data Science introduces exciting new opportunities for actuaries of the future.

Entry to the actuarial profession is by a demanding series of examinations, but the rewards after qualifying are great. The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK has four levels of examinations to qualify. The first level, the Core Principles (CS, CM and CB) subjects, are taught in our BSc or MSc in Actuarial Science and lead to exemptions from subjects CS1, CS2, CM1, CM2, CB1 and CB2. Students will typically study CP1, CP2, CP3, two SP subjects (two SP subjects are needed to satisfy the profession's requirements) and two courses on data science applied to insurance.

Actuarial data science combines advanced statistical modelling and analysis with modern computational techniques in order to analyse potentially large datasets arising in insurance and finance. These analyses have the ability to improve forecasts and enhance decision making in an uncertain environment where rapid advancements in technology and data availability are transforming fields of actuarial work. Additionally, they are building synergies with new sectors such as medical and healthcare. This is an area of science and technology that is attracting significant interest and that will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, as more and more industries adopt data-driven and data-centric approaches.

Students graduating from the MSc will have excellent employment prospects that are not restricted to any one narrow sector of financial services. By their choice of IFoA subjects, they may target the life, pensions, asset management, investment and risk management sectors. They will be in demand in quantitative risk management roles in both banks and insurance companies, as well as fund management companies, hedge funds, consultancies, software vendors and regulatory authorities. The market for graduates with actuarial qualifications complemented with data science skills is growing fast and we expect that it will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Knowledge in operations management is an important requirement of managers across all business functions and there is an increasing demand for operations management specialists in every type of organisation.

This is a specialist MSc
MSc Operations Management is a specialist MSc programme led by academics at the Edinburgh Business School. As a specialist masters, this degree gives those who have worked in industry or studied a similar subject previously, the chance to expand, refine and enhance their knowledge.

This 1-year masters programme focuses almost entirely on the area of operations management. It blends cutting-edge academic thinking with best practice from industry to give graduates and professionals the opportunity to advance with a highly employable skillset.

The five year MEng Software Engineering degree is an integrated Masters course, which augments the first three years of the BSc Computer Science with the professional skills necessary for constructing robust, secure systems. Students spend the start of the fifth year on a paid industrial placement. Organisations that recent students have been placed with include Skyscanner, Leonardo, Cadence, BlackRock and Satalia. Many of our students go on to secure an offer of employment from their placement employer.

Teaching excellence and student satisfaction:
'Software Engineering' at Heriot-Watt is ranked 1st in Scotland and joint 1st in the UK for overall satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2018. 100% of students were satisfied overall with their course.

Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying at Heriot-Watt is designed to meet the needs of the financial management and quantity surveying sectors. The degree offers a solid theoretical base, combined with a strong focus on industrial relevance.

To enhance your career prospects and international experience, we are now offering our established and standard one year Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying Masters over two years through offering a ‘with Industry Placement’ alternative.

This Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying with Industry Placement option offers a practical experiential element over the traditional one-year degree structure, allowing students to reflect on theory in practice.