Welcome to your Computer Science course

Welcome to University of Staffordshire London (USL)! With over 50 years of experience in delivering computing courses, our highly qualified and enthusiastic staff, who possess both academic and professional qualifications, are here to provide you with an excellent education. Located in the digital growth area of the capital, USL-Computing offers a rewarding learning experience that will set you on the path to a successful and fulfilling career. Get ready for an incredible adventure at USL-Computing! Throughout your time at USL, you’ll have opportunities to engage in guest lectures, hackathons, and employer networking events to help you grow professionally and personally.

Course delivery

The most effective and enriching student learning experience occurs when we come together in pursuit of both individual and shared goals. Accordingly, for the 2025/26 academic year, we are planning to provide an enhanced educational environment in which all students will be expected to attend campus for two teaching days per week. This time on campus will support not only scheduled teaching sessions, but also co-curricular and extracurricular engagement. Naturally, all activities will be conducted in strict adherence to current health and safety regulations to ensure the wellbeing of our entire community. You can find your timetable and important course dates here:
https://www.staffs.ac.uk/welcome/timetables

Your course tutors will provide lots of support. But you can also take advantage of our Academic Skills team, who can help you with:

  • Study skills (including reading, note-taking and presentation skills)
  • Written English (including punctuation, grammar and overall language proficiency)
  • Academic writing (effective academic writing skills, including proper referencing techniques)
  • Research skills (Equipping students with the necessary tools and techniques to conduct successful research)
  • Critical thinking
  • Industry experience (Worldwide recognised related certificates, placement opportunity)
  • Revision, assessment and exam skills (including time management)

Timetables and room allocations will be confirmed via your eVision and MS Teams channels, so make sure to check those regularly. You’ll also be using Blackboard for accessing your learning materials, and your student email for all university communications.

Year at a glance

MSc Computer Science students will study the following modules:

Pre-learning

Our library services offer some excellent guides to help you with your studies and workshops sessions can be booked for individual support. Please look at these additional resources that may be of use during your studies:

Our library services offer excellent guides to help you with your studies, and you can book workshop sessions for individual support. Check out these additional resources:

For more study skills resources and guidance on how to prepare before starting your course, explore the University’s Get Ready library guide:

Equipment and software

Software

As a student, you’re entitled to free access to Microsoft 365, GitHub Pro, JetBrains IDEs, and more. The University provides software at no extra cost to all students, which you can access from our University Software Portal.

Hardware

All of our labs are equipped with powerful computers, and additional computers are available in various areas for student use.

For personal hardware, we recommend a laptop with at least an i5 processor (or equivalent), at least 16GB of RAM and a minimum of 500GB of Solid State Drive (SSD). This setup is recommended to efficiently run computing-intensive applications. Using Apple-based laptops is perfectly fine, but please note that not all software has a compatible version for macOS. This is particularly true for some freeware utilities that might be used in your modules.

Trips and activities

We are really excited to invite you to join in on a fun activity during Welcome Week. We want you to get to know other students from different courses as well as your cohort.

As part of your welcome experience, we’re excited to invite you on a trip to Bletchley Park, the historic centre of British codebreaking and birthplace of modern computing. You’ll explore the story of pioneers like Alan Turing, see real Enigma machines, and discover how wartime innovations shaped today’s fields like cyber security, networking, and AI. It’s a fun and inspiring day out, and a great way to connect with fellow students and staff. Full details will be shared during Welcome Week.

Groups and societies

While studying with us, we encourage you to engage with at least one of our numerous clubs or societies. Joining a club or society offers you the chance to meet and connect with like-minded peers, enriching your student life and experience.

For more information on the types of clubs and societies available here at University of Staffordshire please visit our Students Union website.

Professional LinkedIn

Please make sure you have a professional LinkedIn page before joining us and start following updates from us on https://www.linkedin.com/company/uslcomputing/

We also recommend you connect with staff and classmates on LinkedIn and start building your professional presence early.

Meet the team

Dr Vahid Heydari Fami Tafreshi

Course Director - Computer Science

Vahid is a passionate researcher and course director specialising in Computing courses at the London campus. He leads the BSc and MSc Cyber Security courses, focusing on Internet Protocols, Architectures, Cybersecurity, and IoT Security.

Vahid's profile

Dr Mohammad Heydari Fami Tafreshi

Lecturer

Mohammad is a lecturer in Cyber Security, leading the L7 Research Methods and MSc Dissertation modules. His expertise spans applications of AI and ML in Cyber Security, with key publications in IEEE, Elsevier, and Springer.

Dr Maryam Shahpasand

Senior Lecturer

Maryam is a lecturer with over 15 years of intensive experience in cyber security teaching and research, professional training, security consultation, forensics investigation, malware analysis, penetration testing, and incident handling.

Dr Mahsa Zolfaghari

Lecturer

Mahsa is a lecturer in Computer Science and Cyber Security. Her research interests are Systems Design enhancements by Artificial Intelligence (AI), NET ZERO Technologies’ applications and IoT.

Dr Dhuha Al-Shaikhli

Lecturer

Dhuha is a Computer Science lecturer at University of Staffordshire London. Her research interest is in learning management systems and computer education.

Dr Viraj Dawarka

Lecturer

Viraj is a lecturer in computer science/cyber security as well as an active researcher in cloud robotics. His main area of interest is towards the energy efficiency of cloud robotics using educational robots.

What to expect on Welcome Week

We're so excited for you to join us on campus and to welcome you to where you matter. During your welcome week you'll be able to meet our friendly student services teams, connect with new friends, join societies, explore on-campus venues attend club nights and much more.

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Facilities

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Four Star Rating

QS Star Ratings 2021