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Accreditation

The University of Edinburgh, like most UK universities, seeks accreditation of its degree courses by appropriate professional bodies in disciplines where this is relevant. In the case of computing degrees, course accreditation is sought from the British Computer Society (BCS), which is the Chartered Engineering Institution for Information Systems Engineering. Like all engineering institutions, the BCS assesses courses for accreditation against the standards laid down by the UK Engineering Council. Combined degrees with Electronics may also be accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Questions concerning IET accreditation should be addressed to the School of Engineering. Psychology degrees are normally accredited by the British Psychological Society. Questions concerning BPS accreditation should be addressed to the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.

BCS Accreditation

BCS awards accreditation to a variety of levels and with a variety of flavours. For our degrees, the relevant levels are Chartered IT Professional (CITP), Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Scientist (CSci). Full details and explanations of these can be found through the relevant BCS pages. The most recent BCS accreditation visit took place in March 2009 and resulted in continued accreditation for many of our degrees, together with new accreditation for degrees which had not previously been considered. Degrees created since the visit (e.g. BSc Cognitive Science) will be considered for accreditation retrospectively at the next visit. Students on these degrees, and also students on any unaccredited degrees, may seek individual accreditation directly through the BCS.

Degrees Accredited for CITP (including Further Learning), CEng (full), CSci (full)

  • MInf in Informatics (provisional, see below)
  • MEng in Electronics and Computer Science
  • MEng in Electronics and Software Engineering
all subject to the condition that the student passes the project without compensation. These are all granted for intakes from 2009-2013 inclusive. In the case of MInf, the accreditation is further provisional upon a review by the BCS of the quality of the early cohorts of graduates (in other words, they want to check that the quality of the students graduated by this new degree is appropriate). At that time, the BCS may also decide to backdate MInf accreditation to additionally cover intakes from 2006-2008. Accreditation for the MEng degrees was previously handled through the School of Engineering, to whom requests for details should be addressed.

Degrees Accredited for CITP, CEng (partial), CSci (partial)

These accreditations were granted for all intakes from 2008-2013, with the exception of BSc Artificial Intelligence with Psychology, which as a newly considered degree, is accredited for intakes 2009-2013. For previous intakes, all these degrees (with the exception of AI with Psychology) had been accredited to the corresponding levels existing at the time ("Partial Exemption and Partial CEng", see BCS documentation for full explanation).
  • BSc (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence
  • BSc (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science
  • BEng (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence & Software Engineering
  • BEng (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence with Management
  • BSc (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence with Psychology
  • BEng/BSc (Hons) in Computer Science
  • BEng (Hons) in Computer Science & Electronics
  • BEng (Hons) in Computer Science with Management
  • BEng (Hons) in Electronics & Software Engineering
  • BEng (Hons) in Software Engineering
  • BEng (Hons) in Software Engineering with Management
all on the condition that students
  • pass the Informatics honours project without compensation, and
  • undertake the Professional Issues course, and
  • undertake either the System Design Project or the CS/SE individual practical

Degrees Accredited for CITP (partial)

The following accreditations were granted for all intakes from 2009-2013. In addition, the degrees BSc Computer Science and Mathematics, BSc Computer Science and Management Science and Computer Science and Physics are accredited for the 2008 intake and have been accredited to the corresponding level existing previously ("Exemption Certificate Diploma and Diploma Project", see BCS documentation for full explanation) for earlier intakes.
  • BSc (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence & Mathematics
  • MA (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence & Philosophy
  • MA (Hons) in Cognitive Science
  • BSc (Hons) in Computational Linguistics
  • BSc (Hons) in Computer Science & Management Science
  • BSc (Hons) in Computer Science & Mathematics
  • BSc (Hons) in Computer Science & Physics
  • MA (Hons) in Computer Science & Philosophy
  • MA (Hons) in Linguistics & Artificial Intelligence

 all on the condition that students

  • pass the Informatics honours project without compensation, and
  • undertake the Professional Issues course

Degrees Accredited for CITP (Further Learning only), CSci (partial)

The following accreditations were granted for all intakes from 2009-2013.
  • MSc Artificial Intelligence
  • MSc Cognitive Science
  • MSc Computer Science
  • MSc Informatics
  • MSc European Masters in Informatics

 

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