College Degrees Easier?

Kobrakai

Kobrakai

Kobrakai

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I’m in my 3rd year of a college degree in business computing, would have preferred to study computer science but didn’t want to be even more in debt by having to move away from home nearer to a university that taught this, so I decided to stay at college and put up with the business modules.

I keep seeing more and more companies asking for graduates from “recognized universities” and was wondering what the difference was in taking the same course at university as opposed to college? My course may be taught at college but its verified by a university and approved by the British computer society, so is this any less respected?

I always assumed that the companies are just being ignorant, but after hearing from other people I know, and looking at the course information for similar courses at university, it does indeed seem as though I do less work.

I study 4 modules per semester, these modules are normally marked by a single report of 3000-4000 words, or two reports of 2000 words. Every semester there is at least one presentation, and as I am in the final year I have just completed an 8000 word dissertation. I rarely get exams, maybe once a year. How does this compare with what I would be doing at university?
 
8000 word dissertation? Ours are 20,000, although I imagine i'll end up almost doubling that the way I'm going.

Some modules have exams, some don't.
 
Think it might be a different type of degree, im not sure.

Im in my second year studying Computing, and we have to do 12 modules per academic year with at least two assessed courseworks for each module, and also an exam per module. So not only do we have to spend a long time doing coursework but we have to spend a lot of time reading to prepare ourselves for the exams
 
It is less, but the reputation of the institution itself is more important. Also, universities like Oxford are split into "colleges", so it depends what type you are referring to (I assume sixth form).
 
Kobrakai said:
I study 4 modules per semester, these modules are normally marked by a single report of 3000-4000 words, or two reports of 2000 words. Every semester there is at least one presentation, and as I am in the final year I have just completed an 8000 word dissertation. I rarely get exams, maybe once a year. How does this compare with what I would be doing at university?
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Degrees are not equal at all, some are much harder than others. Well we have exams twice a year for Comp Sci at my Uni. I have 5 exams this semester and 3 next semester and a 15k+ dissertation and code project. We get courseworks throughout the term which we have varying ranges of time to do them. It is a little impossible to compare the two because it is a different subject for a start.
 
BlackDragon said:
Think it might be a different type of degree, im not sure.
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The full name that will be on the certificate is “BSc (Hons) Business Computing”. So I believe it is a full honours degree as you would expect from a university.

sr4470 said:
universities like Oxford are split into "colleges", so it depends what type you are referring to (I assume sixth form).
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Not sure really, it teaches standard a-levels, diplomas, NVQ’s and a couple of degrees (I think mine and one that is just in business)

I feel like I should really take a masters but I will see how it goes when I finish this course in terms of finding employment.
 
The average 3rd year at a UK university, ex-poly or red brick is quite similar in terms of actual work load.

Generally speaking a BSc in Comp Sci will involve 2 sets of exams in the year, usually between 5 and 10 each time. One set in January, one in May / June.

Each module will usually carry a piece of set coursework, often with a 2-10k word essay attached and development of a software artifact. Finally a comp sci dissertation will usually involve a dissertation of between 15 and 30k words (mine was 25k), the development of a reasonably complex piece of software or formal definition of a system etc and a relativly short presentation of the work to the markers.

A taught comp sci MSc will carry similar workloads for the modules over the course of a year, with similar numbers of exams in January and again May / June, with a final dissertation of around 20 - 40k words, though this is usually as long as it needs to be rather than it having a set limit.

A research MSc will carry a similar length dissertation, but no modular work being replaced by publication and presentation of your research as it progresses.
 
Ripper said:
8000 word dissertation? Ours are 20,000, although I imagine i'll end up almost doubling that the way I'm going.

Some modules have exams, some don't.
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10000 is pretty common. I top lec at my uni said PHD thesis are around 20k + so wth are you doing?!

manic_man said:
The average 3rd year at a UK university, ex-poly or red brick is quite similar in terms of actual work load.

Generally speaking a BSc in Comp Sci will involve 2 sets of exams in the year, usually between 5 and 10 each time. One set in January, one in May / June.

Each module will usually carry a piece of set coursework, often with a 2-10k word essay attached and development of a software artifact. Finally a comp sci dissertation will usually involve a dissertation of between 15 and 30k words (mine was 25k), the development of a reasonably complex piece of software or formal definition of a system etc and a relativly short presentation of the work to the markers.

A taught comp sci MSc will carry similar workloads for the modules over the course of a year, with similar numbers of exams in January and again May / June, with a final dissertation of around 20 - 40k words, though this is usually as long as it needs to be rather than it having a set limit.

A research MSc will carry a similar length dissertation, but no modular work being replaced by publication and presentation of your research as it progresses.
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A friend of mine said he did about 25k words and most of them where from his application :p
 
Robert said:
10000 is pretty common. I top lec at my uni said PHD thesis are around 20k + so wth are you doing?!

A friend of mine said he did about 25k words and most of them where from his application :p
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The average PhD thesis at Manchester within Computer Science is around 50,000 words, a 10k thesis would be considered very small and would need to be exceptionally concise to contain enough work to justify 3 years of research.

The average BSc dissertation at staffordshire was 20k, i went up to their limit of 25k and i know at manchester its around 15k on average. 10k would be a short one within Comp Sci. but perhaps closer to the mark in say Film Technology or something like that.

My BSc diss was actually 49k if you included all code, appendices etc, but luckily they dont :)

My MSc was 33k minus appendices.

I'll let you know in 2.5 years time how long the PhD one was ;)
 
Degrees from colleges are validated by local HE institutions. So the chances are that you will be on essentially the same courses as you would be at the University itself, as it's unlikely they'd go through the hassle of having different courses validated for HE and FE institutions.
 
Kobrakai said:
I keep seeing more and more companies asking for graduates from “recognized universities” and was wondering what the difference was in taking the same course at university as opposed to college?
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They don't mean colleges, they just don't like poly's. If your college is attached to a red brick it should be their name on your degree and your laughing.
 
Guess it all depends on the subject re: dissertation lengths. Dissertations on my economics degree are 10,000 words max statistics projects. That's at Royal Holloway, uni of london so it's a well respected uni. I can understand why comp sci projects would be so long though if it's a program you're writing.
 
I am doing a 'college degree', its still a BA (hons) and my certificates will have Bath University on them. As far as i'm concerned its bath uni i'm going to put down on my cv.
 
Robert said:
10000 is pretty common. I top lec at my uni said PHD thesis are around 20k + so wth are you doing?!



A friend of mine said he did about 25k words and most of them where from his application :p
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My Undergrad thesis was 30K, technical stuff in a further 17K appendix. PhD thesis tend to be 50-100K, depending on Uni and country. My first year PhD report was around 22K A recent friend graduated with 150K thesis made from 4 Journal articles and 3 conferences papers + another 5-7 chapters.

10K words is actually very very short. Any real piece of work is a struggle to write in less, of course this is the point. Writing 10K words is far harder than 15K for the same work!
 
Telescopi said:
They don't mean colleges, they just don't like poly's. If your college is attached to a red brick it should be their name on your degree and your laughing.
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Rightfully or wrongly, this is the case.

The name of the university s more important that the actually teaching standards.

But in general, the better the name, the harder the course (and probably the worse they teach).

I'm doing a PhD at a very,very well respected lab in switzerland... name is absolutely vital. We have guests stay in our lab which are some of the most famous names on the field. The connections made are invaluable. TV crews are lining up to film us, we turn them away unless we feel they are of importance. The Discovery channel were around the other week.
This may sound like bragging, but I actually hate my job, its just a fact of life that name and connections mean everything. How did I get this PhD Position?, My project supervisor at Edinburgh worked alongside my present PhD supervisor, My current supervisor worked with a good friend of my parents from Stirling University (previously Cambridge), I did some work with a guy from Stanford/MIT. I regularly chat/drink with the big names.


Even before my PhD I did an internship with Sun Microsystems in California. The only universities that ehy looked at were oxbridge/s, imperial and edinburgh (also glimpsed at Laughbrough, york, but didn't hire).


But is depends a lot on your subject. In my area places like essex, sussex and bristol are well respected, Edinburgh probably on top, oxbridge quite low.
Older sister is a vet, younger is at roal dick/Edinburgh vet school. The Top vet school tends to swing between Edinburgh and Glasgow, Cambridge more or less last... but doing maths, I would want to be at a *bridge
 
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Mr.Orb said:
I am doing a 'college degree', its still a BA (hons) and my certificates will have Bath University on them. As far as i'm concerned its bath uni i'm going to put down on my cv.
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That’s what I was thinking.

Or just leave it off the C.V and when they ask where I studied I can say “Norwich” and they will probably assume it was the UEA.
 
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