Information for prospective students

Undergraduate courses

The undergraduate course, called the Computer Science Tripos, is a three-year or a four-year course. Students graduating after three years receive the BA honours degree. Students who achieve a high standard in the third year can stay on for a fourth year and receive both the BA and Master of Engineering (MEng) degrees.
Open Days will be held on 5 and 6 July 2012 at the William Gates Building.
There is also a first year option in the Natural Sciences Tripos that allows transfer into Computer Science at the end of the first year. Students can also apply to transfer from other courses at the end of their first or second year.

The one-year MPhil in Advanced Computer Science is a general Masters degree, preparing students for PhD study in Computer Science. This course took its first students in October 2009.

The PhD is the primary research degree that can be taken in the Computer Laboratory. The Cambridge PhD is a three-year programme of individual research on a topic agreed by the student and the Laboratory, under the guidance of a staff member as the student's supervisor. There is no compulsory course work, and students are expected to complete the substance of their research by the end of their third year, submitting their thesis then or within a few months.

Admissions enquiries may be sent to undergraduate.admissions@cl.cam.ac.uk or postgraduate.admissions@cl.cam.ac.uk, after you have checked the information on these pages.

Discontinued courses: The one-year Diploma in Computer Science and Part II (General) conversion courses ran for the last time during the academic year 2007–08. Students who wished to take Part II (General) are advised to consider taking Part IB of the Computer Science Tripos. The one-year MPhil in Computer Speech, Text and Internet Technology (CSTIT) ran for the last time in 2009–10; many of its language and speech modules are now offered as part of the MPhil in Advanced Computer Science.