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Informatics Third Year Honours Course Guide
Degree specific information

Degrees are specified via Degree Programme Tables. This is the

• complete list of degrees involving Informatics .

Click on a degree title to see a document describing the degree (the Degree Programme Specification). Near the top you will see a link to the Degree Programme Table which gives the courses required for the degree. Each table has the following format (illustrated using the entry for year 3 of the Software Engineering degree: NB example for illustration purposes only!):

Degree Programme Table Format

NYT	Course	S	L	CT
3	System Design Project	O	9	20
	CS/SE Individual Practical	O	9	10
	Professional Issues	O	10	10
	Courses in Software Engineering	O	9	20
	Further courses in any of ...	O	9	40
	Further course	O	9	10
	Further course	A-Q	9	10

The significance of the columns is as follows:

• NYT (Normal Year Taken): self explanatory (the word "normal" is to allow for some variations, e.g., some year 1 courses can be taken in year 2).
• Course: a brief description of the types of courses allowed. Note that "course" does not necessarily mean a taught course, e.g., the system design project counts as a course. Note also that each UG3 course is allocated to various subject areas. Here is the list of subject areas and their codes. The subject area(s) in which each course lies is indicated, using the codes, in the Subject Area/s column in the complete list of Informatics courses .

  It is possible for a course to be allocated to more than one subject area, in which case you can count it in which ever way you prefer in order to satisfy the regulations of your degree.

• S (Schedules): the courses delivered by the various Schools are given a single (upper case) letter code. Informatics courses are indicated with "O". This is the complete list of schedules (the actual tables have links for each schedule entry; this is a local copy because the real thing is in flux, treat with caution).
• L (Level): in order to help to produce broad consistency across the many educational institutions the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework classified educational provision into 12 levels with level 1 representing the most basic access and level 12 doctorates. Level 9 corresponds to third year study.
• CT (Credit Total): each course is allocated a number of points (10, 20 or 40 in this university). Roughly speaking 1 point corresponds to 10 hours of effort (naturally this is a guide only). Note that the points (and implied effort) cover all aspects of a course including practicals, private study, revision and even exam time. Our third year taught courses are generally rated at 10 points; the system design project by contrast is rated at 20 points. The credit total is simply the sum of the points of the courses taken. The total number of points you must take adds up to 120 (this applies to all degrees).

Clearly the entry of interest to you as a third year student is the one under year 3.

Interpretation of the entries.  Looking at the table above, we see that our example student on the Software Engineering degree is required to undertake the System Design Project, worth 20 points, the Individual Practical, worth 10 points, and Professional Issues, worth 10 points. The remaining points are usually made up with courses worth 10 points each, but as the table shows there are some restrictions. Care is needed in interpreting them, but the rationale of the scheme is simply to make sure that there's a balance between imposing enough restrictions to make students' degrees coherent, and allowing flexibility.

The student's choices must include 20 points' worth of Software Engineering courses at Level 9; referring to the list of courses, we see that in 2006/7 the only option is to take Software Engineering with Objects and Components, worth 10 points, and Software Testing, worth 10 points. (However, in other years, the set of Software Engineering courses available might be different: this is why we do not simply list SEOC and ST as being compulsory.) The student must also take a further 40 points' worth from among the Informatics courses in a few specified areas, listed following "courses in any of". (If you look at the areas, you'll see that you might think of them as being the more "software engineering-y" or "computer science-y" of our courses.) Finally 10 points must come from a Level 9 Informatics course (without restriction as to area), and the final 10 points can come from (almost) anywhere in the University. Note however that this does not mean you have the right to enrol in courses offered by other Schools. Should you wish to follow this option it is your responsibility (with advice from your Director of Studies) to check with the other School if you are qualified to take the course and they are willing to allow you to enrol on it. You must also inform the ITO if this happens so that your marks can be obtained at the appropriate time.

For some degrees there is a choice between two or more possibilities. This is indicated by the phrase ONE OF: on a line by itself with the choices shown indented on subsequent lines.

Finally some entries have footnotes, make sure you read these.

Compulsory courses.  As you see, the Degree Programme Table specifies some compulsory courses. For combined degrees take care to consult any additional documentation from the partner School since some compulsory elements might be specified there.

Forbidden courses.  A few courses have restricted numbers due to resource limitations (those that do state this in their course descriptor).

Level 10 courses.  Subject to the approval of the Director of Teaching, students may take one or (exceptionally) more courses at level 10, particularly where this may assist in preparation for a final year project in an area of interest to the student.