September 10, 2025 • 13 mins
This week I chat to Dr Floriana Grasso from the University of Liverpool Online about the range of computer science programmes available. From AI and big data to cyber security, we discuss entry routes into these growing professions, the qualifications required, and the career prospects.
⬇️ Connect with Floriana
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianagrasso/
Explore computer science courses available here: https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/subject/computer-science/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-science/
Full Masters programmes: https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-artificial-intelligence/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-science/ https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-big-data-analytics/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-science/ https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-computer-science/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-science/ https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-cyber-security/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-science/ https://online.liverpool.ac.uk/programmes/msc-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=computer-sci
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Future You
the podcast brought to you
by graduate careers experts, Prospects.I’m your host, Emily Slade,
and in this episode, I chat to FlorianaGrasso from the University of Liverpool
Online about the computer science programsavailable.
Hello, I'm Floriana Grasso, I'man academic in the School
of Computer Science and Informaticsat the University of Liverpool.
(00:21):
And I am the Director of Studies
for the online MSC programsin Computer Science.
Perfect.
So we are here to talk about
all of the computer science coursesavailable at Liverpool online.
So are you able to run usthrough them all?
Yeah, sure.
So we have six computer science programs.
We have two,which are the classic conversion program.
(00:45):
So that dedicated to studentswith no computer science background.
And these are computer science and datascience and artificial intelligence.
Then we have two advanced programs,the artificial intelligence program
and the big data analytics program.
And then we have two specialist programswhich are, basically designed
for students that want to say,dive deeper in a particular topic.
(01:09):
And these are the cybersecurity programand the information systems
management program. Perfect.
So do all the courses follow the samestructure or are they all a bit different.
They the structure is similar.
So they all start. They all
have aset of modules which are talk modules.
So eight modules, there are 15 credits.
(01:32):
And then they all end upwith the capstone project,
which is, I think, a signature in a way,for the computer science degree
in the US Olympic Online.
So we are, very passionate about the factthat they all, follow the same structure.
And as the, on campus, based programs.
So they have, eight modules back to back.
(01:54):
They will start with,a, an introductory module.
So all of them start with the same module,which is called Global Trends in
Computer Science,which is really, meant to kind of,
put students in the position to understand
the cutting edge trendsin computer science.
Maybe they haven't been,
in that in the industry for a long time,or maybe just starting.
(02:15):
So it's, it's a good opportunity to havea good look at all the, cutting edge,
topics and then depends on the, on the,
of course, on the, on the programsthat there's a series of, six modules,
modules, they all finish with the researchmethods in computer science module,
and which is a preparation for,for the capstone project.
(02:38):
As, as I mentioned before.
Perfect.
And these are all done entirely online.
They are all in timeline. There's no exam.
They're all coursework based,and they're designed
to be taken back to backso that you dive deeper into one module.
Then you have a break of 1 or 2 weeks,and then you start with the
with the next moduleand so on and so forth. Amazing.
So who would shoot these courses?
(03:00):
What kind of person would they work for?
What?It really depends on the type of module.
So the, the two conversion modules,the two commercial programs, computer
science and data scienceand I, I really meant to give students
a good introduction,if they want, say, for instance,
to switch careers into computer scienceor data science and AI.
(03:21):
So they give a good foundation on topicslike programing,
databases, for data science and AI.
There's also a
mathematics module.
So that helps understand, the, the,the mathematics behind data science.
So these are reallyif you want to have a good introduction
(03:41):
to the topics and maybe, getting, further,
the, to, advanced program.
So artificial intelligence and big dataanalytics are really for students
with a background in computer science or,a related discipline.
And they go really deeper into topicslike machine learning,
data analytics,big data, cloud computing, etc..
(04:04):
And then the, the, the cyber securityinformation system management programs,
they are interesting
because they are open to all students,both students with they,
computer science background and studentswith, no computer science background
or even though of course, they,they need to be prepared to, to
dive deeper into more technical subjects.
(04:26):
However, they are really meantto focus on these two topics.
So cyber security, of course.
That is around all the,
issues around security
and risk management,etc., and information systems management.
We like to call it the the MBA for I.T.
So it is really for students,that they want to
(04:48):
kind of take a leadership position,
perhaps in their company moved into,
this type of, a career.
But also from a I.T perspective.
So looking at how information systemsystems are managed.
Yeah. Excellent.
So what are the entry requirementsto get onto the courses?
(05:09):
We have a number of routes because,
I mean that we are really passionateabout widening participation in many ways.
So for the two specialist programs,
students need to have a, eithera first, degree in computer science
or related disciplineor they have to have been in the industry
for long enough, to, performif you want, at a graduate level.
(05:34):
So for these two,we are really, looking for students
or applicantswith a good background for the others.
It really varies.
So you can havea first degree in a subject,
or you may have had a work experienceof some sort.
They can, help you through.
And also we have, recentlyopened a performance based admission,
(05:59):
route so studentscan enroll onto the first module.
This is only for, computer scienceand science, any at the moment
to enroll in the first module.
And, if their performance is,
satisfactory,they successfully complete the modules,
then they can move on to,the degree, itself.
So it's very new.
(06:20):
We are we are starting to get studentsthrough this route.
But again, I mean, wewe realize that life happens and they,
they, they not necessarily have completedtheir first degree of any sort, but they
they are passionate about learningand we are really open to them.
Yeah. Fantastic.
So what are the sort of career prospectsfor anyone taking these courses?
(06:41):
It really depends on the topic.
And in thatwe have had a number of students who have,
moving on to the conversion,for instance, programs really have come in
from a different background,and they want to add computer science
or idearelated skills onto the background.
So we are talking about,biologists, chemists or
(07:03):
management etc..
So this is one type of studentsthat we have.
And most of our students, in factthe 99% of students in work already.
So they are really adding onto their work, this, this type of skills.
Or of course, you can become a dataanalyst depending on the,
on the on the subject, of course,becoming a moving to leadership position,
(07:27):
for computer science, you really will havea good foundation programing.
So anything relatedto, programing experience or maybe,
designer of, of systems, etc..
So it really depends on the programs,as you will appreciate.
But there is a number of, of, careerprospects that are available to them.
(07:48):
Fantastic.
What would you sayare the standout features? We,
passionate about pedagogy. Really.
So we the quality control onthese programs is very, very strict.
And, by pedagogy, we mean that we needwe want students to learn not just by,
you know, reading and regurgitateinformation, but participating.
(08:11):
So active learning, and,constructivism, etc..
So that's to say that we have mostof the modules, all of the modules have a
group component.
So the students are asked to eitherdiscuss a topic in a classroom.
Of course, it is all, asynchronously done.
Or they participate in a group projectwith other fellow students, etc..
(08:35):
So it's not just say no,this is the material you study
and then come backand take the exam, a type of situation.
So this is part of,
kind of the, the, the ethos of our programsince the start.
We started 25 years ago.
Now it's quite a number of years now.
And and also, as I was mentionat the beginning of the capstone project.
(08:55):
So we really, want studentsto, dive deeper into a topic
they're interested in, for instance,or they want to explore, or maybe there's,
and the company there sponsors them,is interested in that particular topic.
So the capstone project, is a,
nearly nine month project that they take,in, with the,
(09:18):
supervision of, of an academic, of course,which is assigned to them.
So it's a 1 to 1, situation.
And it is a kind of researchoriented type of, of,
of project so that
they will be able to produce a report,they more
and of course, created 90 artifactof some sort, etc..
So, it isI think really what distinguish us
(09:42):
from many other programswhich only relies on credits basically.
Yeah. Fantastic.
What sort of support is availableto students.
Oh, student support is really I mean,it has received a number of accolades.
I have to say, and,
I perhaps want to mention at this point
(10:02):
that, there was a recently, done exercise
by the Times Higher Educationfor the first time.
They, had a, a ranking
of online providers,which hasn't been done before.
And I'm proud that Liverpool Universitywas among
the only 11 global universitieswith a gold standard.
(10:24):
So and this of course, it'snot only about the quality
and quantity of, of material, butit's specially on obviously the support.
So we have a dedicatedteam of student support,
advisors.
And they take you from,from the very start from,
from the application really all the waythrough through dissertation.
(10:45):
And of course, in terms of
material reading, they are all students.
Of course, as university Liverpoolstudents, they have access to the
University of Liverpool Library online,and that is plenty material there.
So they can,
exploit, the,
the all the facilities of,of the students of university.
(11:07):
Brilliant. Is there anything elsethat you'd like to add?
I suppose that, yeah.
I mean, we, as you may have gathered,
we are passionate about the,the the programing themselves.
And, we've been working on them for,quite a long time.
So there's, we where one of the, first
provide the with a fully online degreesin computer
(11:29):
science incubator has, in fact,was the kind of, type at the time.
So we started 25 years agowith the 80 degrees,
and then other, schools in the universityfollowed, that, that thing.
And, because we wanted to have a programs
which were in all ways and purposes,comparable to the on campus degrees.
(11:49):
We started from the start, to havea full, accreditation for this program.
So all the, you know, so Liverpool sixcomputer science programs are accredited
by the British Computer Society,which is basically the body
which accredits, the, the, computersor IT related degrees in the UK.
So they're all,they all have full accreditation.
(12:11):
And just as the, the equivalent,
on campus degreesand that's something that, as I said,
we were very passionateabout from the start.
And we,we, were very happy to make it happen.
Yeah. Brilliant.
If any prospective studentshave any questions or anything,
can they reach out to you,or is there somewhere that they can go?
They can reach out to me, definitely.
(12:32):
There is also a webpage in the,you know, the Liverpool website,
which is dedicated to online programsand they will make
will be able to contact Ed
admission advisor from thatand then maybe have a chat with them and
and work through the different optionsbecause, of course they,
there are many entry routesand they may want to to check
(12:54):
if they qualify for one programone another.
Yeah. Perfect.
Brilliant. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you.
Thanks again to Floriana for that time.
For more information on the courses,you can check out the show notes below.
If you enjoyed the episode, do feel freeto leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always, for listeningand good luck on your journey to future you.
Hello and welcome back to Future You
the podcast brought to you
by graduate careers experts, Prospects.I’m your host, Emily Slade,
and in this episode, I chat to FlorianaGrasso from the University of Liverpool
Online about the computer science programsavailable.
Hello, I'm Floriana Grasso, I'man academic in the School
of Computer Science and Informaticsat the University of Liverpool.
(00:21):
And I am the Director of Studies
for the online MSC programsin Computer Science.
Perfect.
So we are here to talk about
all of the computer science coursesavailable at Liverpool online.
So are you able to run usthrough them all?
Yeah, sure.
So we have six computer science programs.
We have two,which are the classic conversion program.
(00:45):
So that dedicated to studentswith no computer science background.
And these are computer science and datascience and artificial intelligence.
Then we have two advanced programs,the artificial intelligence program
and the big data analytics program.
And then we have two specialist programswhich are, basically designed
for students that want to say,dive deeper in a particular topic.
(01:09):
And these are the cybersecurity programand the information systems
management program. Perfect.
So do all the courses follow the samestructure or are they all a bit different.
They the structure is similar.
So they all start. They all
have aset of modules which are talk modules.
So eight modules, there are 15 credits.
(01:32):
And then they all end upwith the capstone project,
which is, I think, a signature in a way,for the computer science degree
in the US Olympic Online.
So we are, very passionate about the factthat they all, follow the same structure.
And as the, on campus, based programs.
So they have, eight modules back to back.
(01:54):
They will start with,a, an introductory module.
So all of them start with the same module,which is called Global Trends in
Computer Science,which is really, meant to kind of,
put students in the position to understand
the cutting edge trendsin computer science.
Maybe they haven't been,
in that in the industry for a long time,or maybe just starting.
(02:15):
So it's, it's a good opportunity to havea good look at all the, cutting edge,
topics and then depends on the, on the,
of course, on the, on the programsthat there's a series of, six modules,
modules, they all finish with the researchmethods in computer science module,
and which is a preparation for,for the capstone project.
(02:38):
As, as I mentioned before.
Perfect.
And these are all done entirely online.
They are all in timeline. There's no exam.
They're all coursework based,and they're designed
to be taken back to backso that you dive deeper into one module.
Then you have a break of 1 or 2 weeks,and then you start with the
with the next moduleand so on and so forth. Amazing.
So who would shoot these courses?
(03:00):
What kind of person would they work for?
What?It really depends on the type of module.
So the, the two conversion modules,the two commercial programs, computer
science and data scienceand I, I really meant to give students
a good introduction,if they want, say, for instance,
to switch careers into computer scienceor data science and AI.
(03:21):
So they give a good foundation on topicslike programing,
databases, for data science and AI.
There's also a
mathematics module.
So that helps understand, the, the,the mathematics behind data science.
So these are reallyif you want to have a good introduction
(03:41):
to the topics and maybe, getting, further,
the, to, advanced program.
So artificial intelligence and big dataanalytics are really for students
with a background in computer science or,a related discipline.
And they go really deeper into topicslike machine learning,
data analytics,big data, cloud computing, etc..
(04:04):
And then the, the, the cyber securityinformation system management programs,
they are interesting
because they are open to all students,both students with they,
computer science background and studentswith, no computer science background
or even though of course, they,they need to be prepared to, to
dive deeper into more technical subjects.
(04:26):
However, they are really meantto focus on these two topics.
So cyber security, of course.
That is around all the,
issues around security
and risk management,etc., and information systems management.
We like to call it the the MBA for I.T.
So it is really for students,that they want to
(04:48):
kind of take a leadership position,
perhaps in their company moved into,
this type of, a career.
But also from a I.T perspective.
So looking at how information systemsystems are managed.
Yeah. Excellent.
So what are the entry requirementsto get onto the courses?
(05:09):
We have a number of routes because,
I mean that we are really passionateabout widening participation in many ways.
So for the two specialist programs,
students need to have a, eithera first, degree in computer science
or related disciplineor they have to have been in the industry
for long enough, to, performif you want, at a graduate level.
(05:34):
So for these two,we are really, looking for students
or applicantswith a good background for the others.
It really varies.
So you can havea first degree in a subject,
or you may have had a work experienceof some sort.
They can, help you through.
And also we have, recentlyopened a performance based admission,
(05:59):
route so studentscan enroll onto the first module.
This is only for, computer scienceand science, any at the moment
to enroll in the first module.
And, if their performance is,
satisfactory,they successfully complete the modules,
then they can move on to,the degree, itself.
So it's very new.
(06:20):
We are we are starting to get studentsthrough this route.
But again, I mean, wewe realize that life happens and they,
they, they not necessarily have completedtheir first degree of any sort, but they
they are passionate about learningand we are really open to them.
Yeah. Fantastic.
So what are the sort of career prospectsfor anyone taking these courses?
(06:41):
It really depends on the topic.
And in thatwe have had a number of students who have,
moving on to the conversion,for instance, programs really have come in
from a different background,and they want to add computer science
or idearelated skills onto the background.
So we are talking about,biologists, chemists or
(07:03):
management etc..
So this is one type of studentsthat we have.
And most of our students, in factthe 99% of students in work already.
So they are really adding onto their work, this, this type of skills.
Or of course, you can become a dataanalyst depending on the,
on the on the subject, of course,becoming a moving to leadership position,
(07:27):
for computer science, you really will havea good foundation programing.
So anything relatedto, programing experience or maybe,
designer of, of systems, etc..
So it really depends on the programs,as you will appreciate.
But there is a number of, of, careerprospects that are available to them.
(07:48):
Fantastic.
What would you sayare the standout features? We,
passionate about pedagogy. Really.
So we the quality control onthese programs is very, very strict.
And, by pedagogy, we mean that we needwe want students to learn not just by,
you know, reading and regurgitateinformation, but participating.
(08:11):
So active learning, and,constructivism, etc..
So that's to say that we have mostof the modules, all of the modules have a
group component.
So the students are asked to eitherdiscuss a topic in a classroom.
Of course, it is all, asynchronously done.
Or they participate in a group projectwith other fellow students, etc..
(08:35):
So it's not just say no,this is the material you study
and then come backand take the exam, a type of situation.
So this is part of,
kind of the, the, the ethos of our programsince the start.
We started 25 years ago.
Now it's quite a number of years now.
And and also, as I was mentionat the beginning of the capstone project.
(08:55):
So we really, want studentsto, dive deeper into a topic
they're interested in, for instance,or they want to explore, or maybe there's,
and the company there sponsors them,is interested in that particular topic.
So the capstone project, is a,
nearly nine month project that they take,in, with the,
(09:18):
supervision of, of an academic, of course,which is assigned to them.
So it's a 1 to 1, situation.
And it is a kind of researchoriented type of, of,
of project so that
they will be able to produce a report,they more
and of course, created 90 artifactof some sort, etc..
So, it isI think really what distinguish us
(09:42):
from many other programswhich only relies on credits basically.
Yeah. Fantastic.
What sort of support is availableto students.
Oh, student support is really I mean,it has received a number of accolades.
I have to say, and,
I perhaps want to mention at this point
(10:02):
that, there was a recently, done exercise
by the Times Higher Educationfor the first time.
They, had a, a ranking
of online providers,which hasn't been done before.
And I'm proud that Liverpool Universitywas among
the only 11 global universitieswith a gold standard.
(10:24):
So and this of course, it'snot only about the quality
and quantity of, of material, butit's specially on obviously the support.
So we have a dedicatedteam of student support,
advisors.
And they take you from,from the very start from,
from the application really all the waythrough through dissertation.
(10:45):
And of course, in terms of
material reading, they are all students.
Of course, as university Liverpoolstudents, they have access to the
University of Liverpool Library online,and that is plenty material there.
So they can,
exploit, the,
the all the facilities of,of the students of university.
(11:07):
Brilliant. Is there anything elsethat you'd like to add?
I suppose that, yeah.
I mean, we, as you may have gathered,
we are passionate about the,the the programing themselves.
And, we've been working on them for,quite a long time.
So there's, we where one of the, first
provide the with a fully online degreesin computer
(11:29):
science incubator has, in fact,was the kind of, type at the time.
So we started 25 years agowith the 80 degrees,
and then other, schools in the universityfollowed, that, that thing.
And, because we wanted to have a programs
which were in all ways and purposes,comparable to the on campus degrees.
(11:49):
We started from the start, to havea full, accreditation for this program.
So all the, you know, so Liverpool sixcomputer science programs are accredited
by the British Computer Society,which is basically the body
which accredits, the, the, computersor IT related degrees in the UK.
So they're all,they all have full accreditation.
(12:11):
And just as the, the equivalent,
on campus degreesand that's something that, as I said,
we were very passionateabout from the start.
And we,we, were very happy to make it happen.
Yeah. Brilliant.
If any prospective studentshave any questions or anything,
can they reach out to you,or is there somewhere that they can go?
They can reach out to me, definitely.
(12:32):
There is also a webpage in the,you know, the Liverpool website,
which is dedicated to online programsand they will make
will be able to contact Ed
admission advisor from thatand then maybe have a chat with them and
and work through the different optionsbecause, of course they,
there are many entry routesand they may want to to check
(12:54):
if they qualify for one programone another.
Yeah. Perfect.
Brilliant. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you.
Thanks again to Floriana for that time.
For more information on the courses,you can check out the show notes below.
If you enjoyed the episode, do feel freeto leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always, for listeningand good luck on your journey to future you.
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