BCS Requirements for Projects

Quoted from Section 2.5 of the BCS document ‘Guidelines on Course Accreditation: Information for universities and colleges’ dated September 2010, updated for use from Autumn 2012. 

General project requirements  

An individual project is an expectation within undergraduate, integrated masters, and postgraduate masters programmes. Students must be provided with written guidance on all aspects of the project, including selection, conduct, supervision, milestones, format of the report and the criteria for assessment.  

All projects should reflect the aims and learning outcomes which characterise the programme to which they contribute as set out in the programme specification.  

Project reports  

Projects must involve the production of a report which should include:  

• elucidation of the problem and the objectives of the project  

• an in-depth investigation of the context and literature, and where appropriate, other similar products (this section is likely to be emphasised less for an IEng project)  

• where appropriate, a clear description of the stages of the life cycle undertaken  

• where appropriate, a description of how verification and validation were applied at these stages  

• where appropriate, a description of the use of tools to support the development process  

• a critical appraisal of the project, indicating the rationale for any design/implementation decisions, lessons learnt during the course of the project, and evaluation (with hindsight) of the project outcome and the process of its production (including a review of the plan and any deviations from it)  

• a description of any research hypothesis  

• in the event that the individual work is part of a group enterprise, a clear indication of the part played by the author in achieving the goals of the project and its effectiveness  

• references  

Undergraduate individual project requirements 

It is expected that within an undergraduate programme, students will undertake a major computing project, normally in their final year and normally as an individual activity, giving them the opportunity to demonstrate:  

• their ability to apply practical and analytical skills present in the programme as a whole  

• innovation and/or creativity  

• synthesis of information, ideas and practices to provide a quality solution together with an evaluation of that solution  

• that their project meets a real need in a wider context  

• the ability to self-manage a significant piece of work  

• critical self-evaluation of the process  

In the event of this major activity being undertaken as part of a group enterprise, there is a requirement that the assessment is such that the individual contribution of each student is measured against all the above learning outcomes.  

For accreditation for CITP, CEng or CSci, the individual project should be worth at least 30 credit points at level 6 or above. The project must be passed without compensation.  

For accreditation for IEng the individual project should be worth at least 20 credit points at level 5 or above. The project must be passed without compensation.  

Postgraduate project requirements  

Projects at postgraduate level may be similar in scope to undergraduate projects but should reflect the ethos of advanced study and scholarship appropriate to a masters degree (whether generalist or specialist).  

Postgraduate projects must give students the opportunity to demonstrate:  

• a systematic understanding of knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of the specialist academic discipline  

• a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research or advanced scholarship  

• originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the discipline  

• deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively, make sound judgements in the absence of complete data, and communicate their conclusions clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences  

• demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level  

• critical self-evaluation of the process  

Generalist masters programme projects should be worth at least 30 credit points and be at least at undergraduate honours level. It is recognised that in practice a project on a masters programme is usually worth at least 60 credits at Level 7. The project must be passed without compensation.