Originally known as the "Diploma in Numerical Computing", the Diploma in Computer Science is a conversion course in Computer Science offered by the University of Cambridge. It is the world's oldest course in computer science, attracting students with degrees in mathematics, science and engineering. EPSRC funding was withdrawn in 2001 and student numbers have dropped off since then. The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ...

The course is run by the Computer Laboratory and is a 10-month course divided into three academic terms. The course consists of a number of lecture courses on such topics as software engineering, complexity and computation theory, compiler construction and various others. Most of these lecture courses are shared by the second year ("Part IB") of the Computer Science Tripos; only four of the Part II courses are included in the Diploma. Four examinations are held on the lecture courses in early June. Two of the four examination papers contains 15 questions of which 5 must be attempted. Two of the four examination papers contains 12 questions in three sets of 4 of which 5 must be attempted, with no more than 2 from a section. Software engineering (SE) is the design, development, and documentation of software by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains, interface design, digital asset management and other fields. ... Complexity theory can refer to more than one thing: Computational complexity theory: a field in theoretical computer science and mathematics dealing with the resources required during computation to solve a given problem Systems theory (or systemics or general systems theory): an interdisciplinary field including engineering, biology and philosophy that incorporates... Computability theory is that part of the theory of computation dealing with which problems are solvable by algorithms (equivalently, by Turing machines), with various restrictions and extensions. ... This article is about the computing term. ...

Additionally, students must conduct a practical project throughout the year on a topic of their own choosing. A project proposal is submitted in November after having been checked by so-called overseers — if the overseers deem the project inappropriate or insufficient, the proposal must be amended before its submission deadline.

Students must then prepare and submit a project dissertation of at most 12,000 words in late July/early August. The dissertation counts towards 30% of the final marks, while the remaining 70% are allocated to the examination. It is important to note that students who choose to conduct a programming project will not submit any source code or executable files to the examiners, but only the dissertation. Inclusion of source code in the dissertation is even discouraged except in cases where it significantly aids the documentation and illustration of the project, its implementation and its outcome.

The Diploma in Computer Science at Cambridge University does not follow the general scheme of awarding "First", "Second" and "Third" grades as do the Tripos courses at the university. Instead, students can only either fail, pass, or pass with a distinction. The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelors degree by Tripos, a word which has an obscure etymology, but which may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations. ...

External links

• University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory
• Diploma in Computer Science — syllabus
• University of Kent in Canterbury
• University of British Columbia