University of British Columbia Masters Degrees in Information Systems

Why a Master's Degree

For those students contemplating advanced studies in computer science at UBC, completing a master's degree before continuing to the PhD program confers several advantages. The two-year period of the master's first helps students decide whether a research career is the right career choice for them. If it is, taking this time helps give them the skills needed to pursue independent research. Second, the research experience gained can be very valuable as student work toward picking a PhD topic, as most professors in the department prefer that students shoulder this choice on their own.
Third, a student who completes a master's degree and decides to work in industry prior to embarking on the full PhD has the opportunity to apply his or her skills and master's level education in the field and to take advantage of jobs that have attractive starting salaries.

Master's Program

Each incoming master's student is assigned an advisor. The advisor is responsible for monitoring the student's progress until the student finds a thesis supervisor. Students have two semesters to meet faculty members and explore research opportunities before making a decision on a thesis supervisor. This provides students with a great opportunity to find the best research interest and personality match among our large and diverse faculty.

The UBC Department of Computer Science offers three avenues to a Master's Degree. The first of these is the Thesis Master's, where the major focus is on the student's own research. The second is the Comprehensive Course Master's, intended for students planning to continue to the Ph.D. program at UBC. The third option strikes a balance between the research focus of the Thesis Master's and the course focus of the Comprehensive Course Master's. The department generally does not encourage students to take advantage of this option, but does make it available in unusual circumstances.

Quick Facts

- Degree: Master of Science
- Specialization: Computer Science
- Subject: Information Technology
- Mode of delivery: On campus
- Program components: Coursework + Options
- Faculty: Faculty of Science

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Program Overview

The Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies offers opportunities for advanced research and study of scientific work and thought from a variety of perspectives associated with the humanities and social sciences. An associated Ph.D. degree appears as a research stream under the individual graduate programs in English, History and Philosophy, for example, “History—Science and Technology Studies”.

The M.A. degree program in Science and Technology Studies offers graduate students firm grounding in the fundamental concepts, research methods, and discourses of STS, including disciplinary and theoretical perspectives on the question of scientific objectivity and methodology; sites of knowledge production; the development of scientific knowledge and technological practices; the uses of knowledge in policymaking and other social contexts; the political and social roles of scientists, engineers, and other experts; science, technology, and ethics; science, technology, and aesthetic representation; public perceptions of science and technology; the rhetoric of science; and critical analysis of interactions between science and technology and the broader literary and media cultures in which they are embedded.

Quick Facts

- Degree: Master of Arts
- Specialization: Science and Technology Studies
- Subject: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
- Mode of delivery: On campus
- Program components: Coursework + Thesis required
- Registration options: Full or Part-time
- Faculty: Faculty of Arts

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Data. Knowledge. Action: these three words symbolize steps in the data science value chain.

The UBC Master of Data Science curriculum covers all stages of this chain, providing you with skills to focus on the “knowledge” section. Over 10 months, you will learn how to extract data for use in experiments, how to apply state-of-the-art techniques in data analysis and how to present extracted knowledge effectively to domain experts.

Data science can open your mind—and career path—to infinite possibilities. There is a growing need in many fields for people who can apply computational and statistical techniques to data and then effectively communicate results from analyses to various stakeholders.

The new UBC Master of Data Science is a professional program developed by the combined expertise of the UBC departments of Computer Science and Statistics to help meet this need and give students a fast track to a great career.

Utilizing descriptive and prescriptive techniques, students extract and analyze data from both unstructured and structured forms and then communicate the findings of those analyses in ways to enable organizations to make informed decisions based on data.

What Makes The Program Unique?

The program provides practical, real-world-applicable experience via integrating real-world data sets across the courses.

Many other programs typically focus on producing graduates that are specialized either in statistical methods, or computational methods, but not both. UBC’s new Master of Data Science program enables graduates to span both the statistical and computational perspectives and effectively communicate those results to different stakeholders.

Career Options

Candidates graduate with the skills to extract and analyze data and then communicate the findings of those analyses in compelling and clear ways to help organizations put data to work. The UBC Master of Data Science program gives you experience with a variety of data across a range of domains, and therefore exposure to a multitude of potential career avenues.

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