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School of Engineering and Computing Sciences (ECS)

Career Options and Employability

The School of Engineering and Computing Sciences run taught Masters degree programmes that produce talented graduates with strong academic and scientific competences, aligned to the needs of industry on a local, national and global level.

These competencies provide graduates with the opportunity to pursue careers in many different areas of the software industry such as software management; modern technologies; programming and working with  Internet-based and intranet-based information systems

The School is linked to a number industrial partners for both teaching and research purposes, which ensures that graduates are best placed to apply their learning on entry to the working environment.

“The MSc courses at Durham are distinguished by being based on project-based assessment. Students are required to undertake a practical project at the end of each module to apply theories and techniques learned in lectures to practical applications. The importance placed on practical work can effectively help to produce graduates who are immediately capable of being important assets to companies.”

Iyad AlAgha (MSc in IDS 2005/2006)

Employment development opportunities

Enterprise Module: MSc(T) Computing Science Courses and the Design and Operations Engineering MSC(T) programme include a module on enterprise in which students are taught skills required to set up businesses. The course was initially developed and taught by the Business School. It is currently being taught in-house by the ECS School's engineering teaching staff

Work experience & placements

The School has a close working relationship with the University's Careers, Employability and Enterprise Centre (CEEC) and has a dedicated Academic Careers Contact for Engineering. Recruitment opportunities are advertised to the students both via the CEEC resources and internally within the Department. Multi-employer careers fairs and individual company recruitment presentations (approximately 10 companies per year make these)take place within the School and Faculty of Science, in order to advertise suitable employment opportunities to students.

The School also has an active Industrial Partnership Committee (IPC) with approximately 20 industrial partners from organisations with local, national and international footprints. This committee forms a direct link between the School and employers. The Committee's objectives include ensuring that; up to date industrial perspectives are reflected in all taught courses, students are given the best possible opportunities in terms of graduate employment and industrial members are provided with strong recruitment opportunities.

“At Sage, we value the close ties that we have with Durham University’s School of Engineering and Computing Sciences for a number of reasons. Of course, over the years we have recruited a number of graduates from the University who have gone on to make a great contribution to the Sage business, but more than that we have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with the University which helps graduates and teaching staff to understand more about the skills and competencies we’re looking for as an employer, and which also underpins the transfer of knowledge from the University across a wide range of subjects.
In our experience, Durham University’s Computer Science courses provide students with a great balance of academic content and broader skills such as teamwork, creative problem solving, customer focus and adaptability.”

Mark Gamble, Head of R&D, Sage (UKI) Central