Proposal for
CSE Postgraduate Coursework Programs
2005 and Beyond
John Shepherd
The Postgraduate Coursework programs in CSE were last revised around 1997.
Over recent years, several factors have indicated that changes might be
useful in these programs:
- increasing interest in ``targeted'' programs (which address a specific
major area of study)
- structural problems with the Information Science programs
- flagging interest in IT postgraduate coursework in general
- the rise of competing IT postgraduate programs in other universities
in Sydney
UNSW once held a pre-eminent position as the IT Postgraduate
Coursework provider in Sydney. This is no longer the case, and
the continuing viability of the programs are largely a result
of UNSW's reputation in the Asia/Pacific region, rather than
the inherent attractiveness of the programs.
This proposal aims to revitalise the CSE Postgraduate Coursework
offerings by
- revising (and renaming) the Master of Computer Science and Master of Engineering Science programs
- developing ``named'' majors under these programs in areas with likely demand
- discontinuing the Information Science programs
These changes look minimal, and indeed they will not significantly
change the character of the programs. They will, however, improve
their marketability, and, within the parameters of what the School
will tolerate, this is realistically all that can be done.
CSE currently offers five postgraduate coursework programs, four
retraining programs and one genuine advanced Masters program.
The general admission requirements for all programs:
- a (normalised) average mark of 65% over the last two years of study
(Note that this requirement precludes the majority of our own
undergraduates)
- level of English same as for entry to all other UNSW programs (IELTS 6.5)
Aimed at graduates from technical undergraduate degrees (must have some maths).
Masters: 16 courses, 2 years full-time.
Aims to cover all of the core content from the undergraduate
Computer Science program. Progresses from foundational courses
to core computing to advanced topics in the later semesters.
Graduate Diploma: 12 courses, 1.5 years full-time.
Aims to cover all of the core content from the
undergraduate computer science program, but with less scope for
advanced electives.
12 courses, 1.5 years full-time,
Aimed at graduates from technical undergraduate degrees (must have some maths).
Masters: 12 courses, 1.5 years full-time.
Aims to go into depth in one topic area. Progress rapidly (too rapidly)
from foundational material to intermediate to advanced.
Comes in three majors: Internetworking (most popular),
Databases (quite popular), General (not particularly popular).
Graduate Diploma: 8 courses, 1 year full-time.
Aims to go into some depth in one topic area. Less scope for
reaching advanced studies in the area, given the limited
time-frame and the need to cover foundational material.
Aimed at graduates from CS/IT degrees with a broad computing
background.
(Excludes graduates from some CE degrees, which
are primarily electrical engineering with considerable system-level
computing, but virtually no core computer science, such as data
structures and algorithms).
Masters: 8 courses, 1 year full-time.
Aims to give students a chance to study advanced material to
extend their knowledge from undergraduate studies. Also has
some scope to pick up areas of study which were omitted from
their undergraduate program (e.g. not available at their
institution).
All of the Masters programs have the option (available only to
high-performing students) to replace most (all) of the final
semester courses with a staff-supervised project, similar
in scope to a 4th-year thesis.
In order to structure the above degrees, the postgraduate courses
offered by CSE are grouped into three major classes:
- Group A (Foundational courses):
(required knowledge for every CSE graduate)
COMP9021 Principles of Programming,
COMP9020 Foundations of Computer Science,
COMP9022 Digital Systems Structures,
COMP9024 Data Structures and Algorithms
- Group B/C (Core courses):
(every CSE graduate should be familiar with the
majority of these areas)
COMP4001: Object-Oriented Software/Development
COMP9008: Software Engineering
COMP9031: Internet Programming
COMP9041: Software Construction: Techniques and Tools
COMP9101: Design and Analysis of Algorithms
COMP9102: Programming Languages and Compilers
COMP9151: Foundations of Concurrency
COMP9161: Concepts of Programming Languages
COMP9201: Operating Systems
COMP9211: Computer Architecture
COMP9221: Microprocessors and Embedded Systems
COMP9311: Introduction to Database Systems
COMP9331: Computer Networks and Applications
COMP9414: Artificial Intelligence
COMP9415: Computer Graphics
COMP9511: Human-Computer Interaction
- Group D (Advanced Courses):
(every CSE graduate should be familiar with at least one of these)
COMP4121: Advanced and Parallel Algorithms
COMP4131: Programming Language Semantics
COMP4132: Advanced Functional Programming
COMP4133: Advanced Compiler Construction
COMP4141: Theory of Computation
COMP4151: Algorithmic Verification
COMP4211: Advanced Architectures and Algorithms
COMP4215: VLSI Systems Architecture and Design
COMP4411: Experimental Robotics
COMP4412: Introduction to Modal Logic
COMP4415: Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
COMP4416: Intelligent Agents
COMP4511: User Interface Design and Construction
COMP9018: Advanced Graphics
COMP9103: Algorithms and Computational Complexity
COMP9116: Software System Development Using the B-Method and B-Toolkit
COMP9117: Architectures Of Software Systems
COMP9231: Integrated Digital Systems
COMP9242: Advanced Operating Systems
COMP9243: Distributed Systems
COMP9244: Comparison of Contemporary Processor Architectures ...
COMP9314: Next Generation Database Systems
COMP9315: Database Systems Implementation
COMP9316: eCommerce Systems Implementation
COMP9317: Data Warehousing and Data Mining
COMP9332: Network Routing and Switching
COMP9333: Advanced Computer Networks
COMP9334: Capacity Planning of Computer Systems and Networks
COMP9417: Machine Learning
COMP9441: Cryptography and Security
COMP9444: Neural Networks
COMP9517: Computer Vision
COMP9518: Pattern Recognition and Vision
COMP9790: Principles of GNSS Positioning
COMP9791: Modern Navigation & Positioning Technologies
Some of these classifications are contentious (e.g. is COMP9041
Group B/C or Group A? is COMP9790 ``advanced'' enough to be
counted as Group D?).
The courses in Group B/C were originally in two separate groups,
with Group B being required core knowledge,
and Group C being optional core knowledge.
This distinction appears somewhat arbitrary/political,
and certainly debatable.
These groups have been used in the new proposals, but there is
certainly scope for reviewing them. One possibility is to use
a notion of ``level'' which is related to the background knowledge
required to study a particular course (e.g. level-1 courses have
no pre-requisites, level-2 courses have at least one level-1 course
as a pre-requisite, level-3 courses have at least one level-2
course as a pre-requisite, etc.)
A number of problems exist with the current programs (some of which are
addressed by this proposal, and others of which appear intractable):
It has become clear that the Information Science programs have too
tight a schedule to reasonably expect students to absorb all the
material and progress from foundational to core to advanced in the
available time. This is unfortunate, since the majors offered in
these programs (Internetworking and Databases) make them particularly
attractive.
Master of Engineering Science students, in particular, are often
dismayed at enrolment time by the lack of choice available to them
in any given semester. They see the School Web site, and decide
on a range of courses to study, only to discover on arrival that
some of the chosen courses are not available this semester,
or even next semester (after which they will have completed
their degree). This has led at least one student to take the
School to task over its lack of offerings.
Other factors that impact heavily on student choices are timetabling
and course enrolment quotas. We lose a number of EFTSU's of
postgraduate coursework to Information Systems each year simply
because their courses are more ``available'' by virtue of them running
multiple streams in every course they offer. Even if the timetable
works, many students are disappointed to find that courses they
want to enrol in are full. This is particularly galling for newly
enrolling students, who have not had the luxury of being able to
compete for places in these courses with already enrolled students.
Given recent discussions, it is clear that neither of these issues
is going to be addressed any time soon.
Another course availability issue is related to the fact that we
enrol roughly equal numbers of students in each semester, but not
all courses are offered every semester. This means that students
who enrol ``in the wrong session'' are disadvantaged by not
having some courses available ``at the right time'' (i.e. when
they have completed the pre-requisites). To fix this would require
all core courses to be offered twice per year, unlikely in the
current climate.
Large numbers of core courses and long pre-requisite chains,
combined with course availability, make it difficult for
some students to complete the program specified in the Handbook.
This has resulted in a significant number of students requiring
``variations of program'' in order to graduate in the minimum
time.
This clearly makes a mockery of the specified program as a
full-time degree.
(The Grad Dip Info Sci (Internetworking) was particularly
problematic, given that it was almost entirely composed of
core courses and had a three-course pre-requisite chain;
this made it effectively impossible to complete full-time
in two semesters).
Some (many?) of our students have expressed a desire to see more
industry-relevant material in our courses. Others have requested
more management-related material (which would be more along the
lines of what other Schools in the Engineering Faculty offer).
Some will no doubt argue that management-focused courses might
be better handled by Information Systems; they already offer
such courses and they are taken by many of our students.
As is the case for course availability, there is no chance of
changing the School's current focus so this problem is also
not addressed by this proposal.
Some programs include core courses from other schools in UNSW
(notably Information Systems). Reliance on the
good-will of other schools to increase quotas in their courses
to accommodate our students is not a good idea.
The availability factors noted above sometimes force students
to look outside CSE in order to find electives to complete
their programs, especially if they need just one more course
to complete their program and wish to take it over Summer.
There has been a trend in recent years towards taking courses
at Sydney University and UTS (via the cross-institutional
enrolment scheme) in order to complete programs.
External factors have also impacted the viability of the CSE
postgraduate programs:
Until two years ago, UNSW and UTS had the only postgraduate
coursework IT programs (of any note) in the Sydney basin.
Sydney University has introduced postgraduate coursework programs
which have become quite popular. Anecdotal evidence from students
suggests that the attraction is primarily the cheaper fees that
they charge for their courses.
Macquarie University is set to introduce IT postgraduate
coursework programs from 2005, which will spread the market
even thinner (and Macquarie has a very good international
marketing arm).
Many students in our postgraduate programs, whether we like
it or not, have as their primary interest migration to Australia.
Until two years ago, completing a
Australian postgraduate qualification, especially in IT,
guaranteed enough points to obtain Permanent Residence.
The immigration law has recently changed to (a) downgrade
the worth of IT qualifications (except in narrow areas such
as computer security), and (b) require students
to have completed at least one year undergraduate study
in Australia in addition to a two-year postgraduate
degree. This will significantly reduce the attractiveness
of postgraduate study in Australia for many potential
applicants.
(Some will view these changes as a positive, since it may
reduce the number of students in our programs whose interest
is not primarily with their IT study.)
Keeping the above issues in mind, this proposal attempts to
improve the attractiveness of our Postgraduate Coursework
offerings, without requiring any significant expenditure of
effort by the School (except on the part of staff members
who are willing to develop new majors in their particular
area of interest).
A key objective behind these designs was flexibility.
The aim is to give students as much choice as possible,
while at the same time maintaining some (minimal level
of) core requirements. This will hopefully help to
overcome the availability issues noted above.
This program replaces the current Master of Engineering Science,
and is aimed at CS/IT graduates with a broad computing
background (i.e. must have completed the equivalent of at least
six of the Group B/C courses).
Objectives:
- allow IT graduates and professionals to enhance their knowledge/skills
in a range of advanced topic areas, or to focus on one specific
advanced area of study
- act as a ``feeder'' into postgraduate research programs
Entry requirements:
- completion of an undergraduate CS/IT degree, including at least 6 Group B/C equivalents
- an average score of 65% or higher in the most recent two years of study
- English proficiency at least to the level of IELTS 6.5
Program requirements:
- students must complete 48 UoC of postgraduate courses (normally 8 courses)
- for ``named'' plans, students must satisfy all core requirements for that plan
- at least 5 of the courses must be Advanced (Group D) courses
- at most 3 courses may be from outside Group D, including
- at most 1 free (non-Advanced) elective from any School at UNSW
- at most 3 Group B/C courses
- other courses as specified by a particular plan
- at most 1 Group D course may be substituted by an approved Advanced course from outside CSE
- for students with exceptional marks, a 12UoC project may be used to
replace at most 1 Group D slot and one other slot in the final semester
Students should be encouraged to complete their program as 8 Group D
courses within CSE, or as 6 Group D courses and a project.
Plans:
Majors in at least the following plans are currently being proposed:
- eCommerce (eEnterprise) Systems
- Internetworking
- Databases
- Software Engineering
- (something with an AI flavour)
In addition, there is a generic MIT degree with no specified major.
Students can change plan at any stage during their program.
Plans must satisfy the following criteria:
- there are at least 3 Group D courses in the topic area of the plan
- students are required to take at least 3 of these courses (core requirement)
- it must be possible to satisfy the core requirement in one year full-time starting either session
This re-training program replaces the current Master of Computer Science,
and is aimed at graduates from non-CS/IT undergraduate degrees.
Objectives:
- allow graduates and professionals from non-IT disciplines
to re-train as IT specialists, to a level comparable to a
graduate from the BSc(CompSci) program
- act as a ``feeder'' into postgraduate research programs
Entry requirements:
- completion of an undergraduate degree, which includes at least some Mathematics
- an average score of 65% or higher in the most recent two years of study
- English proficiency at least to the level of IELTS 6.5
Program requirements:
- students must complete 96 UoC of postgraduate courses (normally 16 courses)
- for ``named'' plans, students must satisfy all core requirements for that plan
- students must complete all 4 Group A courses
- students must complete at least 8 Group B/C courses
- student must complete at least 2 Group D courses
- for students with exceptional marks in their Group B/C/D courses,
a 12UoC project may be used to replace 2 elective slots in the final semester
Plans:
The same plans are available as for the MIT.
Advanced Standing:
Students would be eligible for advanced standing only for
Group A courses, and this would be based solely on
successful completion of the Group A exemption exams.
A student with a reasonable computing background (e.g. an Electrical
Engineering graduate from UNSW) would thus be able to complete the
MCIT degree via 72 UoC (or 12 courses).
Exemptions would also be available for other courses.
Such exemptions could be used to reduce the Group B/C requirement,
thus allowing students to take more Group D courses.
These examples are representative only. Each plan ought to come
with its own rationale (which we haven't shown here).
Core Requirement: all courses from the following:
- COMP9311 Database Systems (which most MIT students would get exempted)
- COMP9321 eCommerce Infrastructure
- COMP9322 eCommerce Systems
- COMP9323 eCommerce Project
- MGMT.... Management course targeted at managing eCommerce
- LAWS.... Law course covering legislative/policy issues for eCommerce systems
Recommended Electives: (No requirement to take any of these)
- COMP9314 XML Database Systems
- etc. etc.
Core Requirement: at least 3 courses from the following:
- COMP9311 Database Systems (which most MIT students would get exempted)
- COMP9314 XML Database Systems
- COMP9315 Database Systems Implementation
- COMP9317 Data Warehousing and Data Mining
Recommended Electives: (No requirement to take any of these)
- COMP9031 Internet Programming
- COMP9414 Artificial Intelligence
- etc. etc.
It would desirable to also provide Graduate Diplomas and Graduate
Certificates for each of the above Masters degrees and in each of
the plans under those degrees.
UNSW's current policy on articulation makes this problematic, but
a possible structure would be:
- Graduate Diploma in Information Technology
36 UoC, plan requirements: must complete at least 2 core courses (if enough flexibility)
- Graduate Certificate in Information Technology
24 UoC, it is hard to see how plausible plans could fit in such a tight deadline
- Graduate Diploma in Computing and Information Technology
72 UoC, plan requirements: must complete at least 2 core courses (if enough flexibility)
Must complete all 4 Group A's and at least 6 Group B/C's
- Graduate Certificate in Computing and Information Technology
48 UoC, plan requirements: must complete at least 2 core courses (if enough flexibility)
Must complete all 4 Group A's and 4 Group B/C's
It is difficult to see how plan-specific Grad Dips and Grad Certs would work.
Perhaps these degrees should only be awarded as ``generic''.
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