Big Data is now part of every sector and function of the global economy – from retailers, to health providers, to financial services and insurance, and to governmental and non-governmental organisations.

Planning and strategic decision-making processes rely on large pools of data that need to be captured, aggregated, stored, and analysed. But people with the right set of skills – data scientists – are in short supply and high demand.

Our degrees respond to this growing demand:

• MSc in Data Science and Analytics – This degree programme prepares you for a career in Big Data.  You will be taught both the foundational aspects and the practical skills that prepare you for handling and analysing different types of data in different fields.
• MSc in Computational Finance – This degree programme, offered jointly with the Department of Economics, allows you to specialise in modern quantitative finance and computational methods for financial modelling.
• MSc in Machine Learning – This degree programme allows you to develop a deeper understanding of the science of systems that can learn from data, which for example companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo require to create, innovate, and define the next generation of search and analysis technologies.

Each programme offers compulsory modules and options that you can select from a wide range of hot topics in Computer Science, Economics, Information Security, Management and Mathematics. A two-hour session runs weekly throughout the course with skills workshops and advanced seminars given by academics or professionals, including former Royal Holloway students and post-docs who went on to work for Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.

All programmes are offered with or without a paid industrial placement (internship). Taking a placement is an excellent opportunity to gain industrial experience (which gives you an extra edge when applying for jobs in the future) and acquire skills that can only be fully picked up in a work environment.  It also allows you to develop a better appreciation of how what you have learned relates to real-world problems and to put into practice the techniques that you will have been taught. So far, 60% of international students who have secured a placement in the Year-in-Industry pathway have been sponsored to remain working in the UK.

All programmes can be taken part-time over up to five years, but without a placement. The MSc in Data Science and Analytics and the MSc in Machine Learning can also be taken part-time on a day-release mode, i.e. lectures are delivered on a single day of the week in each term, but for a fixed choice of non-core modules.

Opportunities for on-campus part-time work are available.