Do my homework....anyone?

It's interesting that there are, on the UCAS search, only 57 courses on "Forensic Computing" for Undergraduates in the UK, yet for "Computer Science" there are over 400, and that's not counting "Software Engineering" and the miriad variations on a theme. Additionally, if you were to look at the leauge tables, a number of these Universities offering these "Forensic" courses aren't awfully near the top - I wonder if perhaps, over time, as the field becomes more prevalent, that the courses will become better developed.

I, personally, read ( and didn't finish - so I can't claim much here !) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at an older University where the empasis on the scientific method, research and development from the individual was significant. The "learning to learn" was more important to me than the actual knolwedge imparted, of which I have used next to nothing since.

However as there has been a general move to more vocational subjects, the process of "doing", rather than "knowing" has been made more important at all levels from GCSE up. ( I have children, this is a real world observation - not one drawn from reading the newspapers, which do tend to sensationalise anything to do with education. )

Oddly (perhaps not), if you look at the questions in general, you see the same, a lot more "How do I ?" rather than "Why does it ?" …

Oddly (perhaps not), if you look at the questions in general, you see the same, a lot more "How do I ?" rather than "Why does it ?" …

Hmm, interesting observation.

Interesting article and follow-up comments on a somewhat related note at http//www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11676192

With that in mind, I just wanted to come back to a point raised earlier about the differences between students in the US and the UK (at least I think it was this thread, although it may have been the other forum magnum opus which is running concurrently) - I'm curious to know what our non-UK members make of the state of the UK education system based on what they may have read, either here or elsewhere?

Jamie

The problem isn't just in the UK.

Take a look at this story

http//www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/11/03/man-exam-anxiety-lukacs.html

And then people wonder why those of us that worked hard for our degrees get so p****d off.

I recently graduated from a Univeristy with a degree in Computer Forensics.

It makes me very annoyed to see the state of some requests of students on this forum, I put a lot of time and effort in to the subject not only to get a great classification but to understand the subject further than what was required from me for assessments.

Seeing folk just asking people to hand them the answer is just… wrong.

It's interesting that there are, on the UCAS search, only 57 courses on "Forensic Computing" for Undergraduates in the UK, yet for "Computer Science" there are over 400, and that's not counting "Software Engineering" and the miriad variations on a theme.

I actually think thats quite a high number really, considering the size of the field (lets say as opposed to computing as a whole and all its applications), although i suspect the quality/aim/direction of those courses probably varies quite dramatically from place to place. (though again perhaps the same could be said for any subject)

It's interesting that there are, on the UCAS search, only 57 courses on "Forensic Computing" for Undergraduates in the UK, yet for "Computer Science" there are over 400, and that's not counting "Software Engineering" and the miriad variations on a theme.

I actually think thats quite a high number really, considering the size of the field (lets say as opposed to computing as a whole and all its applications), although i suspect the quality/aim/direction of those courses probably varies quite dramatically from place to place. (though again perhaps the same could be said for any subject)

I think you are right about the variation, I didn't go further in my original post, but the entry requirements varied from 150 UCAS points ( which I think equates to something like 2 C's at A-level ) to 320 ( ABB ) in the 10 courses that I looked at, showing a fairly major variation in the expectation on applicants.

What I was emphasising, I think, was that a majority of Forensicators will, infact, come from a non-Forensically trained background and, perhaps don't get around to asking questions here until they are more mature, futher educated and are perhaps applying the knowledge directly to a task in hand, rather than the students here who are younger, less educated (at this point) and are applying theory only.