Diploma in Computer Science
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The Diploma in Computer Science is one of the conversion courses offered by the University of Cambridge. The course is run by the Computer Laboratory and is a 10-month course divided into three academic terms.
Contents
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. Each of the four examination papers contains 15 questions of which 5 must be attempted.
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.
Results
The Diploma in Computer Science 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.