Bachelor of Science (BSc)

BSc Computer Science and Mathematics with Industrial Experience

Graduate this highly sought-after subject combination having already gained invaluable experience in industry.
  • Duration: 4 years
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: GG41 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Industrial experience
  • Scholarships available

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Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £36,000 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

The University of Manchester is committed to attracting and supporting the very best students. We have a focus on nurturing talent and ability and we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to study here, regardless of your financial circumstances.

For information about scholarships and bursaries please visit our  undergraduate student finance pages .

Course unit details:
Distributed Systems

Course unit fact file
Unit code COMP28112
Credit rating 10
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

The course unit assumes that students already have a solid understanding of the main principles of computing within a single machine, have a basic understanding of the issues related to machine communication and networking, and have a notion of what distributed computing is. The syllabus will contain topics covering the fundamentals of distributed computing, its application in modern systems and issues to be considered when designing distributed systems.  

Pre/co-requisites

Unit title Unit code Requirement type Description
Introduction to Programming 2 COMP16412 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Operating Systems COMP15212 Pre-Requisite Compulsory
Students who are not from the Department of Computer Science must have permission from both Computer Science and their home School to enrol.

Aims

To provide students with the awareness of the impact and benefits of distributed computing in their everyday interaction with modern computer technology, as well as knowledge of the fundamentals of distributed computing, and understanding of essential techniques and methods, to equip students with basic skills to further explore more advanced course units that require knowledge of distributed computing.

Learning outcomes

  • Have acquired knowledge and understanding of the main principles, techniques and methods supporting the basic functionality of distributed systems.
  • Have developed the ability to identify applications where distributed computing is used and its impact on society.
  • Have acquired knowledge and understanding of main issues to be considered when designing a distributed system.
  • Have developed the ability to understand how the main principles, techniques and methods supporting distributed computing are applied in practice in existing systems.
  • Have developed the ability to design and implement prototypical distributed computing applications using available technologies.
 

Syllabus

Introduction

Revision of the characteristics of distributed systems. Challenges. Architectural models.

Remote Invocation and Distributed Objects

Java RMI, CORBA, Web Services.

Message-Oriented middleware

Synchronous vs asynchronous messaging. Point-to-point messaging. Publish-subscribe.

Concurrency, co-ordination and distributed transactions

Ordering of events. Two-phase commit protocol. Consensus.

Caching and Replication

Security

Service-Oriented Architectures, REST and Web Services

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures/workshops delivered in the classroom (lecture notes to be made available to students via Blackboard).

 

Laboratory sessions (setting, submission and marking (and feedback) of practical material to be made via Blackboard).

 

Individual self-study hours.

 

On-line exam with duration of two hours

Employability skills

Analytical skills
Innovation/creativity
Problem solving

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 50%
Practical skills assessment 50%

Feedback methods

Three weeks following submission of each piece of work.

Recommended reading

COMP28112 reading list can be found on the Department of Computer Science website for current students.

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Assessment written exam 2
Lectures 24
Practical classes & workshops 10
Independent study hours
Independent study 64

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Sandra Sampaio Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Course unit materials

Links to course unit teaching materials can be found on the School of Computer Science website for current students.

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