Computer Science BSc (Dubai)

Start date
September
Duration
3 years
Campus
Dubai
Course Type
Undergraduate, Single Honours
Fees

Tuition fee for 2024 entry is AED 132,778 per year of study and can be paid in instalments.
Scholarships are available.

 

Would you like to work for a global company and have opportunities that could take you anywhere across the world? You could choose from a diverse range of exciting roles. With a degree in Computer Science from the University of Birmingham Dubai, the possibilities are limitless.

In our fast changing digital world, computer science is everywhere. It touches every aspect of our lives from the phone in your hand to the planes in the sky.

On our comprehensive BSc Computer Science degree, you will study in state-of-the-art facilities on our brand new technology enhanced 'smart' campus, to combine analytical knowledge and technical skills as you research and develop software solutions to real-world problems. Teaching is joint between academics on our Dubai campus, and our Edgbaston Campus. You will also have the opportunity to interact and work alongside students in our Edgbaston campus in the UK whilst you study at our Dubai campus.

To enrich your learning experience on our programmes, our teaching is delivered jointly by staff from both our campuses (Dubai and the UK), by utilising modern digital technology. Typically, for each module, the teaching team consists of colleagues across the campuses with at least one member based in the Dubai campus. You will receive the same high-quality teaching materials (lecture slides and notes, for example) and rigorous assessments (assignments and exams, for example) as our UK campus. You will also have the opportunity to interact with staff & students across both campuses to support and enhance your learning experience. Furthermore, there is also the opportunity to conduct projects under the supervision of staff from either of our campuses which significantly boosts the pool of project topics accessible to our students.

Birmingham graduates are highly sought after by leading industry players, and the range of job opportunities available to you are endless. You could become anything from a Software Engineer, Artificial Intelligence Developer, Robotics Engineer, Financial Computing Analyst, Applications Developer, or inspire the next generation of computer scientists academically. Graduate salaries are highly competitive. 

Industry representatives come to us to actively seek out and recruit the best graduates for their roles and we have strong links with global companies such as Goldman Sachs, BAE Systems, PwC, IMB, Google, Expedia, Rolls-Royce, Morgan Stanley and Vodafone.

Computer scientists work over a wide range of disciplines - they design and create search engines, social networking applications, software applications used in the financial world to map customer profiles and expose credit card fraud, and applications used in the medical sector to identify cancers through the analysis of medical images.

We'll teach you about all kinds of computational systems, their theory, design, development and application. This includes programming languages, software engineering, artificial intelligence, operating systems, cyber security, statistical and mathematical models of computation, machine learning and the theories of computation.

Why study Computer Science at Birmingham Dubai?

  • Global reputation for educational excellence – The School of Computer Science is a truly international place, and our world-leading academics specialise in areas relevant to modern-day issues. We offer the same first-class education as in our UK campus, by delivering the same high-quality curriculum and you will graduate with a degree from a global top 100 university. 
  • Research-led teaching - Our research feeds directly into your teaching ensuring your programme includes the latest developments in Computer Science, such as Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Cyber Security.
  • Three year programme - We are the only British institution in Dubai offering a three year UAE Ministry of Education accredited Computer Science programme. 
  • Flexibility - In your third year, you will be able to tailor your studies to the topics that you are most interested in, by choosing from a range of optional modules.
  • State-of-the-art facilities - You will study in purpose-built facilities in our modern campus, fitted out with a range of advanced equipment and computer science software on our brand new, technology enhanced 'smart campus'.
  • Exceptional learning environment - We have a real sense of community, with staff that are approachable and nurturing, which provides a collaborative and supportive learning environment for students. There is an excellent student to teacher ratio and multiple channels of support are available to students, via both physical and digital means.
  • Careers service and industry connections -   You will have access to our expert careers support and a wide range of services to help you on your path towards employment. We also have strong industrial links with corporations such as Goldman Sachs, BAE Systems and PwC, which provide beneficial opportunities for our students, such as careers fairs, industrial guest lectures and potential placements or work experience options.
  • Exchange opportunities - You can choose to spend your second year studying at our picturesque campus in Birmingham, UK (subject to academic attainment).
  • Scholarship opportunities - As a University of Birmingham student, a range of scholarship awards will be open to you.

Student Profile - Avinisha Tiwari

"I chose to study Computer Science at UoB Dubai because of the interesting topics covered in the modules, the ranking of the University and the environment of the University and how great the communication is between the staff and students. The help we get from teachers was also a factor"

Read Avinisha's profile >> 

Meet our academics

Our Computer Science academics are highly qualified and based in Dubai.

See their profiles

We are proud to offer the same high-quality curriculum and teaching of our Computer Science programmes on our Dubai campus. We will equip you with the fundamentals of computer science, whilst also providing plenty of optional modules to allow you to specialise in the area that interests you.

Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, Undergraduate Programme Director, Computer Science

Modules

Year one

We want to give you a really strong education in the fundamentals of computer science, so in first year you'll be given an overview of the subject and gain a firm foundation in the principles of algorithms, artificial intelligence and relevant maths. You will also learn computer programming in Java - an invaluable language widely used in business and industry.

We want you to have a chance to follow your own passions whilst studying, so in your first year you are also given a chance to pursue your own interests, via work within robot programming in the Artificial Intelligence module. We encourage group work as part of our commitment to preparing you for the world of employment and you will learn valuable skills.

Like all UAE Ministry of Education Higher Education Institutions, we also run the below listed compulsory modules. These modules are designed to support talented graduates in the region, with the skills to aid and further employability. 

  • Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Sustainability (EIS)
  • Arabic Language 1
Please note these modules must be completed and passed, in addition to your core programme modules, during the course of your degree. Find out more about EIS and Arabic modules.

Year two

In the second year you move on to study enabling technologies and their application. You will learn about a wide range of subjects from the mathematics for modelling and decision making which underpins much of modern machine learning, to systems-level programming, networks, and cyber security. Your programming repertoire will be broadened by exposure to the C programme language plus further functional programming. You will also be taught professional software engineering techniques and apply them to develop a large team project in Java such as a multiplayer networked game.

You can also apply to spend the second year of your BSc Computer Science course at our campus in the UK.

Year three

In the final year of your BSc computer science course you will obtain a huge amount of training and experience so you can maximise on your degree to achieve your ambitions and interests. 

You’ll spend one third of your time on a project, either developed from your own idea or from a wide selection offered by staff members. This usually involves writing a large piece of software and gives you the freedom to extend and demonstrate your skills in your own way. We will also introduce you to Machine Learning and Advanced Networking.

Compulsory

Optional modules

Choose 80 credits, examples of optional modules listed below, each module is 20 credits:

Please note: The modules listed on the website for this programme are regularly reviewed to ensure they are up-to-date and informed by the latest research and teaching methods. Unless indicated otherwise, the modules listed for this programme are for students starting in 2024. On rare occasions, we may need to make unexpected changes to core modules; in this event we will contact offer holders as soon as possible to inform or consult them as appropriate.

Why Study Intensive Programming (for the connected world)?

Programming plays an important role in this modern age. Imagine you walk into your house and your lighting automatically changed according to your mood, your sofa was set to your favourable seating position, your favourite TV channel switched on, and the coffee machine had already prepared your favourite coffee. How could all of this happen? Programming can give life to any computing device. A programming language powers computing devices to collect, control, store and process data accordingly.

There is a continuously increasing number of businesses and industries relying on computer programming. Programming languages, such as Java, JavaScript, C#, C++. PHP, Python, SQL, Perl etc, evidently are the driving force behind the advances in Robots, Voice Recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Big Data, to name a few.

Programming has become a necessity in our digital world, not only in the IT industry, but also in business, engineering, medicine, healthcare, fashion, marketing, gaming, mobiles, websites, multimedia to name only a few.

In our degree programme, we focus on intensive programming in order to develop strong programming skills in our students.

Relevant modules we offer that cover programming

Object Oriented Programming  (OOP) 
This module introduces you to a programming paradigm which greatly helps to organise and manage code more easily. You'll discover fundamentally important concepts like encapsulation (keeping things together in separate boxes), inheritance (inheriting traits from parents), polymorphism (using objects in different ways), and abstraction (simplifying complex ideas).  By completing this module, you will learn why OOP is useful and what its limitations are. You will also gain the skills to write, test, and fix computer programs using modern OOP languages.  

Full Stack Application Development  (FSAD) 
This module provides a comprehensive overview of software development, including front-end programming for the user-interface, back-end programming for handling user requests, and connecting to databases for storing application data. It covers elements of both desktop and web programming. You will learn various tools and techniques used in full stack development, allowing you to build fully functional software applications from start to finish.  

Operating Systems and Systems Programming  
This module focuses on understanding the inner workings of computer systems and programming at a low level. You will utilise low-level languages (e.g., C/C++) to interact with the operating system's core, manipulate pointers, and effectively manage memory. This module aims to provide you with a solid understanding of computer architecture, programming, and operating systems, thus enabling you to excel in real-world software development.  

Data Structures and Algorithms
In order for programs to run efficiently, data must be organised in a structured way and also accessed by algorithms as efficiently as possible. This course will introduce a principled way in which data can be organised. It will also teach how the efficiency of a program can be measured in terms of complexity, and how complexity can be estimated mathematically given a problem. This module has both a theoretical and practical nature.

Why Strong Theoretical Foundations?

The digitally-driven world changes fast, with digital trends raising and fading away in the span of a few years. One example is today's popularity of artificial intelligence, which only 15 years ago was extremely unpopular not attracting much funding from the private and public sector. At the same time, computing skills have an ubiquitous usefulness in society, finding applications much beyond IT, for instance in medicine, biology, finance, banking, businesses, fashion, gaming, and policy-making, among others. An education purely based on practical training would only train a professional that could cope with the current technologies, but unable to cope with changing landscapes (e.g. with the advent of another mainstream technology in 10 years) or unsuitable to cope with a domain that was not represented during training. A strong theoretical foundation along with a balanced mix of practical training is therefore crucial to acquire lifelong cores skills of general applicability, but at the same time it offers the necessary practical skills to enhance employability prospects after graduation.

Relevant modules covering theoretical foundations of computer science

Mathematical and Logical Foundations of Computer Science 
Mathematical and logical reasoning underpins almost all of Computer Science, from linear algebra in graphics and machine learning, to algebra in cryptography and logic in verification.
This module introduces essential topics in mathematics and logic including linear algebra; abstract algebra; set theory (a fundamental language of mathematics); and propositional and predicate logic. The key ideas will be illustrated with applications across a range of topics in computer science.

Theories of Computation
This module introduces the quest to solve computational problems, and the analysis of how difficult that may be. Some problems are easy, some are hard (as far as we currently know), and some are impossible. We start by looking at syntactic correctness problems.

They come up so often in computing practice that special languages have been invented for them: regular expressions and context free grammars. We'll look at apparently hard problems, such as solving a Sudoku puzzle of unlimited size, or planning a route for the legendary travelling salesperson. Can they be solved efficiently? Nobody knows! Then there are examples of the baffling P=NP question, which has flummoxed computer scientists for decades.

Finally, we'll look at impossible problems, such as testing whether a program code is correct. How useful it would be to do this automatically! But alas it can't be done, and we'll learn why not. At each stage, we start with an intuitive idea of what a computer is and how it runs, and turn this into a mathematical definition, following in the footsteps of the famous computing pioneer, Alan Turing. This brings the power of mathematical reasoning to bear on these key challenges at the heart of computer science.

Data Structures and Algorithms
Algorithms lie at the heart of computer science and software development. They embody the way in which we solve problems using computers. This module will introduce the fundamentals of data structures and algorithms. Data structures will be formulated to represent information in such a way that it can be conveniently and efficiently manipulated by the algorithms that are developed. The ideas will be presented both abstractly, and via problem-solving and implementations. 

Functional Programming
Functional Programming is another way of implementing software, by dividing the programs into pure functions. In simple terms, a functional program focuses on results, not on the process and the emphasis is on what is to be computed? Functional programs avoid the concepts of shared state and mutable data as we typically observe in imperative and Object-Oriented Programming languages.

Functional languages emphasize on expressions and declarations rather than execution of statements. Therefore, unlike other procedures which depend on a local or global state, value output in functional programs depends only on the arguments passed to the function. Some of the key features of functional languages include pure functions, immutability, recursion, higher-order functions, curried functions, monads, dependent types, and type classes.

Fees

We charge an annual tuition fee which is set at AED 132,778 per year of study for 2024 entry which can be paid in instalments.

Scholarships

We have a number of scholarships available.

How To Apply

To find out more information about our application process please visit our 'How to apply page' before starting your application.


Mathematics

If you do not meet the entry requirements for maths, you may be eligible to take our maths entry test. For a one to one consultation with our team about this opportunity please contact dubai@contacts.bham.ac.uk or +971 424 92300.

UK

3 A Levels. Typical offer A*AA-ABB A Level Mathematics grade A. 
If you are taking any reformed A levels, which include Biology, Chemistry and Physics taught from 2015, you must pass the practical element. General Studies or Critical Thinking not accepted.

International Baccalaureate Diploma

6,6,6 at Higher Level to include 6 in Mathematics with a minimum of 32 points overall. 

GULF

Please view the Middle East section on the international country page for further information on entry requirements. 

India

AAA – ABB =

  • AAA - 85% ISC, CBSE, Maharashtra or 80% West Bengal or 90% Other State boards.
  • ABB - 75% ISC, CBSE, Maharashtra and West Bengal or 80% Other State boards

Mathematics must be taken with 85% ISC, CBSE, Maharashtra or 80% West Bengal or 90% Other State boards

Please view our international country page for further information on entry requirements.

Pakistan

  • The University will consider students who have taken A Level examinations and/or the International Baccalaureate (IB). Requirements for each of these qualifications is listed above.

Please view our international country page for further information on entry requirements.

American System

Either a total of 3 distinct subject tests from APs and/or SAT subject tests or one year at a Community College or USA University.

English Language Requirements 

Please refer to the Undergraduate English language requirements page for information on English proficiency. 

Other entry requirements can be found on our international country page.

Overall, the teaching in the Computer Science department is fantastic. All of the lecturers are very helpful and will go out of their way to support you. The course content is very well structured and contains very applicable knowledge and skills for industry.

Aaquib Naved, Computer Science student

Our highly regarded teaching on the BSc Computer Science course employs a mixture of lectures, tutorials, exercise classes, lab and study work, projects, online assignments, presentations and independent study. 

We want to prepare you for your graduate career by helping you gain skills and experience in many different ways, as roles in computer science often ask for individuals who have strong communication and team working skills. By keeping your learning varied, you will have the chance to learn and grow to allow you to communicate in different ways, and with different types of people.

Assessment

All work will be assessed via exams, coursework, presentations and a dissertation.

A degree gained through completing our BSc Computer Science course provides the skills required for a wide range of careers.  It will give you a disciplined approach to analysing problems, with the ability to design creative solutions and critically evaluate the results. Employers are impressed by the combination of technical and transferable skills offered by computing graduates, and as such, you might find yourself in a variety of environments in academia, industry, research and commercial organisations.

These qualities, plus the prestige of a degree from a leading World Class University, make our graduates attractive  to companies in the engineering sector worldwide as well as those in finance, consultancy and commerce.

Examples of companies where our graduates have gone on to work include:

  • Microsoft
  • Google
  • Apple
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Sony
  • IBM
  • Siemens
  • Honda
  • JP Morgan
  • Morgan Stanley
  • The Bank of England

With the fast changing connected world, computer science is a key area for future careers across the world. Dubai, for example, is a truly exciting global city with a rapidly developing economy and extremely fast digitisation of Government services and actively embracing the artificial intelligence lead automation of various sectors. There is a vibrant start-up scene evident by the massive success of Careem and Amazon.ae formally souq.com. This is no doubt creating new jobs for computer science professionals.

The skills that I am gaining; the course does not just teach knowledge, it trains us in certain skills which can be applied outside of the course, for example many students develop software that has been published, gained them an internship or enhanced their CVs

Hung Hoang

Your Birmingham Degree

Your Birmingham degree is evidence of your ability to succeed in a demanding academic environment. Employers target Birmingham students for their drive, diversity, communication and problem-solving skills, their team-working abilities and cultural awareness, and our graduate employment statistics have continued to climb at a rate well above national trends. 

Professional Accreditation