Universities support curriculum for excellence computing science

Published On Mon 24 Mar 2014 by Roddy Isles

The Universities of Abertay, Dundee, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh Napier, Strathclyde, and Robert Gordon are pleased to announce that they will recommend Higher Computing Science for entry to the first year of undergraduate Computing programmes.

This follows on from a successful meeting organised by the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA), which brought together school teachers, academics and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to discuss the new curriculum.

SICSA Director of Education Dr Karen Petrie (University of Dundee) commented,  “This is further evidence of the strong partnership between Scotland’s universities, schools and Government in ensuring that Scottish pupils receive world class computing education.”

Computing At School, the grassroots organisation for computing education and subject association for Computer Science in the UK, has welcomed the decision. Kate Farrell, co-Chair of Computing At School Scotland, explained, “This is an important step towards school leaders, parents and pupils recognising Computing Science as a rigorous academic subject.”

Dr Quintin Cutts (University of Glasgow), also co-Chair of CAS Scotland and National Project Officer for the Scottish Government-funded CPD project Professional Learning and Networking for Computing (PLAN C), pointed out that the new SQA qualifications had enabled the universities to make this commitment to schools Computing Science.

He noted, “Teachers across the country are putting in a huge amount of effort to ensure that pupils reach the raised outcomes set by the new qualifications. We hope that the PLAN C CPD programme will further help teachers nationwide meet this goal.”

Notes for Editors:
Contact Person: Dr Karen Petrie, SICSA Director of Education
Telephone: 01382 388613 or 07966521636
Email: kpetrie@dundee.ac.uk

Roddy Isles
Head of Press
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN.
TEL: 01382 384910
MOBILE: 07800 581902
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk