If you choose to do an industry placement, you will spend your third year in paid training, applying your computing skills to within a commercial organisation. This practical training gives you a fresh insight into your academic work, and it often helps with Your choice of career after graduation. On successful completion of your placement year you will be awarded a diploma.

The Department of Computing has excellent links with leading companies and is currently working on research and consultancy with Lucent Technologies, Siemens, Ericsson, cable and wireless, Marconi, ECI Telematics and Nortel. Through the Director of Innovation and Enterprise, in the School of Informatics, we are also involved with a number of multimedia, e-business and telecoms initiatives, increasing our network contacts with industry and opportunities for students.

Students are given assistance to find these jobs by both the Department and the University Careers Service, but the arrangement is between the student and the employer and the University will not intervene in the process except on academic or Health and Safety issues.

The placement is integrated into the course by being designed to enhance the student's self motivation, report writing, presentation, interpersonal and professional skills, as well as gaining work experience. The interpersonal and professional skills are enhanced and assessed by their employer by exposing them to the professional working environment under the supervision and guidance of their line manager (and/or mentor). The line manager is responsible for 50% of their assessment.

The other skills are taught in the Department prior to the placement and assessed by the Placements Tutor (an academic member of staff) who also supervises the student during the year. The assessment for these (the other 50%) is based on monthly diaries, submission of a final report and a presentation to fellow students during the final year.

Students are monitored by e-mail, the monthly diary, a six-monthly questionnaire to both student and supervisor, and a visit at the end of the year. Any student who is not progressing satisfactorily is visited as soon as a problem is apparent. Any student experiencing difficulties is also visited and the difficulties discussed with the line manager.