Computer Science History: 2010s
Student numbers continue to grow and the School moves to the USB to accommodate its every-growing staff and student community.
In 2011, Netskills Joined the School of Computing Science. The Netskills service was first established in 1995 as part of the JISC Electronic Libraries programme.
The original project was called Network Skills for Users of the Electronic Library. The project grew out of training offered as part of the Mailbase mailing list service.
It provided services to a range of clients including all UK universities and most FE colleges. It also worked with:
- public libraries
- schools
- the commercial sector
- government
- non-government organisations
Professor Aad van Moorsel took over from Professor Lee as Head of School, inheriting a thriving organisation.
Student numbers had increased rapidly over 50 years. In 1967 there were six undergraduates, nine MSc /Diploma students and eight PhD students.
The 2012 student numbers were around 500 undergraduate, 140 MSc and 85 PhD students.
The single computer that served the entire university in 1957 had by 2012 become several hundred computers in the School of Computing Science alone.
In December 2014, the School of Computing Science received a fantastic result in the Research Excellence Framework (REF). It jumped from 22nd to 9th place in the UK by GPA, placing the School in the top quartile for Computing Science. The exercise demonstrated all impact case studies to be world-leading.
The school was ranked first in the country for the economic, social and cultural impact of its research. All its impact case studies ranked as Outstanding.
Professor John Fitzgerald becomes Head of School.
The School of Computing moves to the Urban Sciences Building (USB).