Artificial Intelligence (MSc)

at University of Edinburgh

You will follow two taught semesters of lectures, tutorials, project work and written assignments. During this time you will also learn research methods (such as literature review and project planning) to prepare for your final project and dissertation, which is completed during the summer.
 

In addition, about half your taught course credits must be chosen from areas of artificial intelligence. Course offerings follow the main research areas of our staff, with multiple course options available in natural language processing, machine learning, robotics, and related areas.
 

Example courses offered recently in artificial intelligence include:

• Accelerated Natural Language Processing
• Advanced Vision
• Automatic Speech Recognition
• Decision Making in Robots and Autonomous Agents
• Machine Learning & Pattern Recognition
• Natural Language Understanding, Generation, and Machine Translation
• Probabilistic Modelling and Reasoning
• Reinforcement Learning
• Robotics: Science and Systems
   

For your remaining courses, you may choose further options from artificial intelligence or from a wide range of courses offered in other areas of Informatics, including computer systems, theoretical computer science, software engineering, and social and biological computation. Guidance is provided to help you choose a set of courses that work well together, giving you specialised expertise in your chosen area.
 

Please note: This degree has flexible course options. Students are only admitted onto the degree if they will have a viable set of options, but not all courses on offer are appropriate for all admitted students. The School of Informatics offers a wide selection of courses, but not all optional courses are guaranteed to run every year, and a few high-demand courses may limit enrolment to students on the most relevant degree(s).

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in informatics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, electrical engineering, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, physics or psychology.
 

Entry to this programme is competitive. A typical offer will normally require a UK first class honours degree.
 

Competence in programming is essential. During your degree you must have completed a programming course in at least one of the following: C/C++, Java, Python, R, Matlab, Haskell, ML.
 

During your degree you must have completed the equivalent to 60 credits of mathematics that have typically covered the following subjects/topics: calculus (differentiation and integration), linear algebra (vectors and multi-dimensional matrices), discrete mathematics and mathematical reasoning (e.g. induction and reasoning, graph theoretic models, proofs), and probability (concepts in discrete and continuous probabilities, Markov chains etc.) Prior knowledge of probability concepts is especially important for this degree.
 

English language requirements

You must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies, regardless of your nationality or country of residence.
 

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified*:

• IELTS Academic: total 6.5 with at least 6.0 in each component.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 92 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 176 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE: ISE II with distinctions in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 62 with at least 59 in each component.
• Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS, TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE, in which case it must be no more than two years old.

The fees for Artificial Intelligence (MSc) may vary from £10,000 to £20,000 annually for tuition fees. The fee's prices may get higher for International Students.

Our students are well prepared for both employment and academic research. The emphasis is on practical techniques for the design and construction of intelligent systems, preparing graduates to work in a variety of specialisms, from fraud detection software to recommendation systems and assistive robots.