Our year in industry course with a specialism in information security will give you a strong foundation of knowledge, skills and practical experience to kickstart your career. Your work placement in year 3 will give you skills and awareness that can be refined in a real work environment and will help to set you apart when you apply for jobs. The creation, transmission and storage of huge volumes of electronic data is one of the defining features of our age. It brings us untold benefits but it also exposes businesses, governments and individuals to repeated threats. We increasingly rely on the expertise and innovations of information security specialists, without which many aspects of our daily lives would grind to a halt. You could be one of them.

This four-year course will equip you to manage and improve the smooth running and security of systems, applications and organisations. You will learn from leading researchers in the field, covering topics such as cryptography, computer security, fraud detection and the study of how security itself can best be managed. All this will be underpinned by a solid grounding in the fundamentals of computing and application development. From the outset, you will be experimenting with programming games, robots, Gadgeteer kits, Subversion, JUnit testing, Scrum-based Agile software and more, in our well-equipped laboratories. Your year in industry will start at the end of year 2.

We are located in the famous M4 corridor, known as 'England's Silicon Valley', and we enjoy close links with many of its leading technology companies. If you are unable to go ahead with your placement you will have the option of transferring onto our equivalent three-year BSc course. Alongside our core modules you will have the flexibility to tailor your studies to your own interests in your final year.

Information security specialists are in demand across a wide range of sectors, from private companies to banking, telecommunications, security consultancies, the civil service, public utilities, retail, the military and more. It is a rapidly expanding field, with some lucrative job opportunities. This course will give you a solid grounding in the knowledge, skills and practical experience required for a successful career in computing and information security or related fields. You will learn to analyse and solve problems with creativity, to translate technological innovations into programming solutions, to design, implement, test and maintain software systems, and to handle complex technical information. You will also develop valuable transferrable skills such as: team working, advanced IT skills, critical thinking, data handling, communication, time management and self-motivation.

Our partners in industry advise us on our curriculum, to make sure it responds to the latest market needs and trends. This means our graduates are up-to-speed with all the latest trends and developments. We run jobs fairs and a short-term work placement scheme, and your personal adviser and the campus Careers team will be on hand to offer advice on career opportunities. We also maintain strong links with our alumni, who can often provide advice, contacts and networking opportunities. In recent years, our computer science graduates have launched careers in everything from network systems design and web development, to business management and finance. They work in organisations such as: Amazon, American Express, Apple, Bupa, Capita, CGI-Logica, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Symantec, among many others.