“At the University of Bolton, we take great pride in providing a quality, supportive learning environment for our students.” Professor George E Holmes DL | President & Vice Chancellor
“...tutors are very supportive and you’re not just a student ID number, at this university you are an individual with a name.” Ellisse Vernon | BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing
Our BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security) is ideal if you're fascinated by computers, enjoy problem solving and want a fast-paced, challenging job. We offer the knowledge and skills needed to anticipate and combat threats to computer software and data, including hacking, theft, viruses and other forms of cyber-attack.
Key information
Award:
BSc (Hons)
Mode of Study:
Full-time
Duration:
3 years
Location:
The University of Bolton
UCAS points:
96
UCAS code:
G310
Start date:
20/09/2021
Course Details
It’s predicted that by 2022, there will be a worldwide shortage of 1.8 million information security workers (1), meaning that the future offers qualified cybersecurity professionals access to excellent career opportunities and competitive salaries. Our BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security) course is an ideal route into this dynamic and evolving industry.
Cyber security focuses on protecting data and information systems from cyber breaches. Covering how to design secure computer systems, this unique degree emphasises secure software development and promotes a deep understanding of the structure of computing systems. Throughout the course, you’ll develop technical knowledge and applied skills in security defence techniques and counter-measures, ready to protect computer systems and electronic infrastructures from attack. In particular, we’ll focus on helping you learn to design and develop your own security tools for probing, analysing and defending computer systems against attack.
Our expert and dedicated team will cover how to analyse and evaluate security threats and vulnerabilities to information systems, perform security risk assessments and develop security controls, processes and software. We’ll support you as you learn how to respond to security incidents and implement resolution activities. The department’s strong links with business mean you’ll have the chance to work on ‘live briefs’ in your coursework assignments, so you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy real-world context and application for the skills and knowledge we’ll help you develop.
With class sizes no greater than 30, we can offer you meaningful, personalised learning plans. Our dedicated and enthusiastic lecturers – many of whom are active researchers with extensive industry insights and experience – will help you develop both the theoretical knowledge and the practical, hands-on skills required by the security sector that will put you one-step ahead of attackers from day one. Meanwhile, guest speakers and lecturers give you access to highly relevant and up-to-date input from industry settings.
All of this is backed by our well-equipped IT suites, where you’ll get to apply and develop your learning individually and in groups, with expert guidance and support.
(1) https://www.isc2.org/News-and-Events/Press-Room/Posts/2017/02/14/Global-shortfall-of-cybersecurity-workers-to-reach-1-point-8-million-in-five-years accessed on 07/01/2019
Highlights
Our Computer Science courses are top in the UK for student satisfaction, according to The Complete University Guide 2022.
Our Computer Science courses are also placed first in the UK for teaching quality and student experience by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.
The department – and the wider University – provides a warm and friendly environment for your studies, with relatively small class sizes, purpose-built teaching facilities, and excellent student support and library services.
Your teaching and tutorial team brings an impressive range of professional experience and technical prowess to the course, so you’ll have the chance to explore and evaluate a range of perspectives relating to your studies.
A big part of our commitment to your progress is helping you develop your employability and industry networks. The teaching team work collaboratively with industrial partners to ensure that you have access to the latest and relevant industrial skills. So, we’ll encourage you to attend guest lectures that give your learning context, offer access to industry contacts, and contribute to your underlying professional development.
By underpinning our content and assignments with a strong industrial focus, we foster a keen understanding of the professional IT environment, and help you develop essential skills such as team-working, communication and problem solving.
This degree offers a comprehensive overview of key cyber security principles, methods and activities, such as types of security, common attack techniques, performing a risk assessment, penetration testing, managing risk and assessing the ‘cyber security culture’ of an organisation.
We’ll focus on your individual needs, and provide personalised learning support in order to help you find the learning strategies that best support you as you begin your journey towards an exciting and challenging career as a cyber-security professional.
Key Features
Our dedicated laboratories, servers and end-hosts feature high-specification hardware and the latest software, so you’ll have industry-equivalent hands-on experience.
You’ll also get to experience the latest technologies, such as OpenStack – developed by Rackspace and NASA.
As you’d expect, many of our computing facilities are accessible online, so you can work on your assignments wherever you are, and whenever inspiration kicks in.
We’ll support you to develop sought-after skills such as background research, critical reasoning and problem solving, as well as professional communication, time management, teamwork, and lifelong learning.
We’ll also encourage you to build a portfolio of evidence representing the projects and tasks you’ve completed during your studies, ready to impress potential employers.
We continually monitor and update the course to reflect current and ever-changing issues in computing, and to keep your learning in line with technological advances and innovations.
Professional recognition
The University of Bolton’s BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security) programme offers you the opportunity to develop the skills to be recognised as a RedHat certified practitioner in systems administration, and gain a number of other industry-relevant professional accreditations. We were the first UK university to become a RedHat academy and offer you access to the accreditation examinations at a significantly reduced cost.
Your Level 3 subjects must include a technology related subject; for instance, A-level Mathematics or BTEC Extended Diploma in Computing.
You should also have five GCSEs at grade C or above or grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent) including English and Mathematics.
We're more than happy to have an informal chat with you about this course, either over the phone or in person. If you wish to meet in person, please contact the Programme Leader to arrange a mutually convenient time. (While we reserve the right to interview it's not our usual practice for this course.)
If English isn’t your first language you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
Want some reassurance or advice? Speak to one of our advisors. Email us at admissions@bolton.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1204 903 394.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
Our BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security) degree offers the knowledge and skills needed to implement, maintain and support the security controls that protect an organisation’s computer systems and data assets from threats and hazards.
As a graduate, you’ll possess a deep understanding of computer systems and how underlying infrastructure, software and data contribute to a modern computing infrastructure. You’ll also have the skills and knowledge that are required to identify where threats and hazards can occur in modern infrastructure, along with the skills to develop, implement, maintain and support security tools and controls that analyse, prevent and protect against attacks.
During the course, you can also expect to develop a wide range of technical, professional and interpersonal skills, such as attention to detail, team working, communication and analytical skills, time management, problem solving and lifelong learning.
What can I do with this qualification?
Graduates from this programme should prove valuable to private, public and third sector organisations of all sizes and across the full spectrum of industries. Given the worldwide shortage of cyber security professionals, you should be able to choose an interesting, challenging and rewarding environment to work in.
On successful completion of the course, you’ll be well prepared for a career in cyber security and might seek a technical role in an area such as penetration testing, security design or malware analysis, or choose a broader role, such as security planning, risk assessment or security planning. Opportunities in areas such as defence, forensics, commerce, technical security and system administration should be open to you. As you progress through your career and gain experience, you’ll be able to work your way up to positions of greater responsibility, such as chief information security officer, IT security director or security architect.
After graduation, you’ll also be ready to progress to postgraduate-level study or additional IT certification in order to develop your expertise further. Studying for a PhD or professional doctorate is another option.
Alternative career options
Graduates can use the qualification as a stepping-stone into a range of other careers. For some of these roles, relevant experience and postgraduate study may be required. Roles include:
Consultancy
Digital copywriting
IT sales
IT training
Teaching
Research and development
Network engineering
Product management
Technical writing
Social media management
Data analysis
Information systems management
Games development
Course fees
Home Fees
Year of study
Total
Entry year
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
2024/25
2021
£9,250
£9,250
£9,250
-
£27,750
International
Year of study
Total
Entry year
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
2024/25
2021
£12,450
£12,450
£12,450
-
£37,350
Important note regarding tuition fees for the 2021-2022 academic year:
EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for ‘Home’ fee status.
If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for ‘Home’ fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement.
Please read the
student finance eligibility 2021-2022 policy on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student’s course of study will be set for the
normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in
March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
For 2021-2022 entry, the maximum government approved undergraduate tuition fee for UK students is £9,250 per year.
The University is able to charge this fee subject to an approved Access and Participation Plan for 2021-2022 and its current rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework.
For details of how to apply for this course, please choose your status from the options below:
If you already have a UCAS application for September
If you have an application for September with UCAS and are applying through Clearing please ensure you have
received a verbal offer from the University by calling 01204 903030.
The online application form and guidance notes are available on the
UCAS website.
You can apply for up to 5 courses through UCAS (at the same or different institutions) for a fee of £24.
Alternatively, if you only wish to apply for a single course at a single institution then a reduced applicant's
fee of £13 is applicable.
You will need the following information to complete your UCAS application form:
You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen
start date from the list below:
You should have to hand:
Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course –
you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be
someone who can provide an academic reference
Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format.
Personal statements may be word documents.
Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page.
If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data
you have already input.
If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394
or admissions@bolton.ac.uk
The University welcomes applications from international students from all over the world.
We try to make the application process as simple and as fast as possible for our international applicants.
How you apply is determined by your current location and what you are choosing to study:
Apply direct to the University. Links for the next available intakes of this course are shown below.
Please click the link which will direct you to the online application form. Please read the user
guidance before completing this.
Apply via one of our approved in-country referral partners. A list of our partners may be found on the
International pages of this website.
Apply via UCAS for courses starting in September only – visit
www.ucas.com.
Should you have any queries please contact the International Team on +44 (0) 1204 903110 or email
international@bolton.ac.uk
Apply online: University of Bolton
BSc (Hons) Computing (Cyber Security)-20 September 2021 (Intake not currently accepting international applications)
University of Bolton Group Partners
Bolton College
University Technical College
University of Bolton
The University welcomes applications from our group partners and progressing students so we try to make our application
process as simple and as fast as possible. By selecting the link for your chosen course from the list shown below you
will be taken directly to our online application form. Please read the user guidance before completing this and ensure
you upload all supporting documents such as certificates and your personal statement when you apply.
Please ensure when you are asked to add a contact email address you add your college/university email account address
as well as your personal address. If you do not add your college address as your contact address we will be unable to
identify you as a partner and you will be referred to apply via UCAS, which incurs a cost.
We look forward to receiving your application and you continuing your academic journey with us!
Learning and teaching methods use a blended style, which means you’ll have face-to-face sessions as well as taking part in online learning. You can expect a mixture of seminars, lectures and tutorials, practical laboratory/workshop sessions, a visiting speaker programme, critiques, self-directed study and e-learning, as well as online sessions and support. We’ll help you gain practical skills through technical introduction and support, workshop sessions, demonstrations and activity-based assignments. Throughout the course, a strong practical theme promotes active learning.
In terms of assessment, we aim to provide creative and industry-relevant ways for you to demonstrate your theoretical and practical knowledge. You can expect assessments to involve assignments, projects, in-class tests, portfolios and presentations. Some assessments will contribute to your final module mark and allow you to demonstrate that you’ve met the learning outcomes, while others are designed to help you identify areas that need extra attention on your part, or where you need extra support from your tutors.
Modules
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
Programming and Scripting
Security Fundamentals
Networking Principles
Modern Operating Systems
Programming for Cyber Security
Secure Systems
Scaling Networks
Advanced Operating Systems
Undergraduate Project
Ethical Hacking and Digital Forensics
Information Security Management
Network Management
Assessment methods
Level
Assesment method
Level one
Coursework 100%
Level two
Coursework 88%, Practical exams 12%
Level three
Coursework 75%, Written exams 25%
Learning activities
Level
Learning activity
Level one
Guided independent study 66%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 34%
Level two
Guided independent study 77%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 23%
Level three
Guided independent study 77%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 23%
Disclaimer
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
