Why choose us?
Ten good reasons to choose the School of Computing at the University of Kent.
1. Employability
The 2012 National Student Survey (NSS) confirmed the excellent employment rates of the School of Computing graduates. All of the undergraduate programmes have a high proportion of graduates either going on to further study or to professional or managerial jobs.
Computer Science with a Year in Industry graduates had the highest employability rates at the School with 100% being either employed in a professional post or on a further course of study six months after graduation.
2. Student satisfaction
The National Student Survey also confirmed Kent as a top UK university for student satisfaction. Kent was placed third for overall satisfaction, with Oxford and Cambridge joint second behind the Open University.
3. Industrial experience
During your degree you can gain industrial experience with leading companies in the UK and overseas as part of a Year in Industry with support to find industry experience from the School’s placement office. This experience means that after graduation many of our students go on to work for world-class businesses. The School of Computing can also provide commercial experience working as a student consultant within our KITC (Link).
4. World leading research
Our programmes are taught by leading researchers – 95% of our Computer Science research is of international quality, with 65% rated as world-leading or internationally excellent in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. You get a chance to study subjects close to the leading edge in areas such as artificial intelligence, computer security, parallel systems, bio-inspired computing and mobile computing.
5. Teaching excellence
Kent has developed two leading object-oriented teaching environments for the Java programming language – BlueJ and Greenfoot. Our staff have also written several internationally acclaimed textbooks for learning programming, which are used worldwide.
The School of Computing has been awarded the status of Centre of Excellence in Object-Oriented Programming and two of our staff have received the SIGCSE Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education.
6. Wide ranging courses
We offer a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes ranging from the more technical Computer Science courses through to joint honours degrees. Our undergraduate programmes include professional accreditation by the British Computer Society.
7. Attractive campuses
The School of Computing is based at the Canterbury and Medway campuses. Both sites have excellent facilities and combine a very safe and friendly environment with a great location, a wealth of cultural links and superb transport connections to London and continental Europe.
8. Excellent study support
We provide excellent support including access to web-based information systems, podcasts and web forums for students who can benefit from extra help. We use innovative teaching methods, including BlueJ and LEGO® Mindstorms for teaching Java programming. The library has over a million books, periodicals and journals, many of which are available online and can be used remotely as well as on campus.
9. Broad range of careers
Our graduates have launched their careers in many different sectors including finance and insurance, technology and IT, commerce, engineering, government, education, and health. Leading companies, such as, BAE Systems, Cisco, IBM, Disney, CitiGroup and BT, are keen to employ our graduates.
10. Competitive salaries
The average starting salary of School of Computing graduates is an impressive £25,000 to £27,000 (compared with a national average of £24,000 for similar courses).