Graduate · Computer Science
Master of Computer Science
Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia
About this program
Flinders built this degree around the idea that computer science is now a broad enough field that a good master's should let students choose their own weighting between theory and application. You'll pull topics from computer science, information technology, digital media, software engineering and mathematics, so two graduates can come out with genuinely different skill sets depending on whether they leaned toward robotics, intelligent systems, or software engineering practice.
Accreditation from the Australian Computer Society at the professional level matters here because Flinders' course is also recognised through the Seoul Accord, which means the qualification carries weight for skilled migration and professional registration well beyond South Australia. That international recognition is a bigger deal for this degree than it sounds on paper, since a large share of the cohort is international students planning a career move to Australia or elsewhere.
The final two semesters shift from coursework to a supervised masters project, and Flinders explicitly frames it as a chance to dig into an advanced niche - robotics, video game technology, or biomedical computing among them - under a named supervisor rather than a generic capstone brief. For someone who already has an undergraduate degree in an unrelated field, the first year is where the real foundational catch-up happens; for those with a CS background already, it's more of an accelerant into a specialisation.
Cost & duration
English test scores
Course structure
6 terms of coursework
- Year 1, Semester 1: foundations in programming and data structures, discrete mathematics for computing, computer systems
- Year 1, Semester 2: database systems, software engineering principles, choice of an elective stream (AI, networks, or digital media)
- Year 2, Semester 1: advanced electives drawn from robotics, intelligent and interactive systems, or systems engineering
- Year 2, Semester 2: masters project (part 1) plus specialised electives such as heuristic optimisation or advanced software engineering
- Final semester: masters project (part 2) - independent supervised research or applied development in an area such as robotics, biomedical computing or game technology
- 72 units total, full accreditation from the Australian Computer Society at the professional level
Admissions
Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in computer science, information technology, ICT-based engineering, or a closely related discipline (or hold the Graduate Diploma in Computer Science); assumed knowledge of at least second-year undergraduate computer science.