Professional Studies in Data Science

Programme highlights

• Provides insight into how to get the most out of the data within your organisation.
• Brings together a range of expertise to provide a unique combination of courses.
• Projects are supervised by research staff and can be related to real world problems in industry.

The new specialisation for the MProfStuds draws together courses from Computer Science, Statistics and Information Systems to address a need for professionals with a specific skill set. The qualification enables graduates to be readily identifiable as holding the skills to participate in the field and to contribute to its advancement.

The specialisation has three components:

1. A data management stream and a data science stream, consisting of at least two courses in each area.
2. The development of particular specialist strengths alongside the core knowledge, such as entrepreneurial and business skills, or further depth in Statistics or Computer Science.
3. A research project under supervision by an academic and/or practitioner from industry.

Programme structure

The Master of Professional Studies in Data Science is a taught masters programme which can be taken full-time or can take up to four years part-time. It is based around a core of at least four advanced Computer Science and Statistics courses. Courses are offered at the City campus during the standard University of Auckland semester period. Courses can be selected from:

• At least 30 points from COMPSCI 751, 752, 753, 760
• At least 30 points from STATS 762, 769, 782, 784
• Up to 30 points from courses relevant to the area of study from SCIENT 701, 702, COMPSCI 705, 711, 720, 732, 734, INFOSYS 720, 722, 726, 727, 737, 740, OPSMGT 760, 762, 764, STATS 779, 783
• 30 points from COMPSCI 791 Dissertation

Entry requirements

In order to be admitted to this programme, a student needs to have completed:

either

• the requirements for a four-year Bachelors degree

or

• the requirements for a Bachelors (Honours) degree

or

• the requirements for a Bachelors degree

and

• have at least a B- average grade in the 90 points (or equivalent) of the most advanced courses of the degree

and

• either a professional qualification equivalent to one year’s advanced study or at least three years of professional experience deemed relevant to this programme by Senate or its representative

and

• any prerequisites for the courses in the subject area in which they wish to enrol.

Applicants who do not have the background to take the core 700 level Computer Science courses should first take some relevant computer science courses as part of a Certificate of Proficiency programme. (COMPSCI 220 Algorithms and Data Structures and/or COMPSCI 230 Software Construction, for example.)

Applicants who do not have the background to take the core 700 level Statistics courses should also first take some relevant statistics courses as part of a Certificate of Proficiency programme. (STATS 201 Data Analysis or STATS 207 Data-centered investigation and analysis, for example.)

English language requirements 

• IELTS (Academic): Overall score of 6.5 and all bands 6.0 or better
• Internet-based TOEFL (iBT): Overall score of 90 plus a written score of 21
• Paper-based TOEFL: Overall score of 575 plus Essay (TWE) of 4.5
• Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) and Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE): Overall score of 176 and all bands 169 or better
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic: Overall score of 58 and no PTE communicative skills score below 50. 
• Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB): 85

• University of Auckland International Student Scholarships