Cape Town, South Africa
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
30 Sep 2025
EARLIEST START DATE
Feb 2026
TUITION FEES
ZAR 142,910 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for Rest of the World| SADC Fees: From ZAR 79,210| Non-SADC African Students Fees: From ZAR 126,810
Key Summary
Introduction
The Masters programmes in Computers Science involve two years of full-time study undertaken after completion of an Honours degree in Computer Science. Admission is competitive, not guaranteed, and is primarily on the basis of academic results. It is designed to provide students with the professional basis for a career path in the computer industry, and/or to enable them to embark upon a research programme at Doctoral level
Application Deadline
For the Masters by Coursework and Dissertation, applications open April and close on 30 September. Applications for the Masters by Dissertation do not have a closing date.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Persons from outside of South Africa wishing to study at the University of Cape Town should apply to their own governments or national donor agencies for funding - this is not done by the University of Cape Town. The University administers an International and Refugee Student Scholarship, but funds are very limited: application forms are available from the Postgraduate Financial Office. The closing date for applications is 31 July each year.
Applicants should contact UCT's Postgraduate Funding Office directly
Curriculum
There are two possibilities:
- The Masters by Coursework and Dissertation involves a first year of coursework and a second year during which a mini-dissertation is completed. It is a full-time degree with no part-time options offered.
- The Masters by Dissertation involves two years of research during which a dissertation is completed. To be accepted for this programme, the student must already have identified a supervisor who is willing and able to take them on as a student.
In the first year of study, a student completes coursework totalling 90 credits, comprising a compulsory course in Research Methods (18 credits) and six elective courses (12 credits each). The coursework year is a year of full-time intensive work and it is impossible to combine it with outside work. At the beginning of the second year of study, once they have passed the required coursework, a student enrols for the mini-dissertation component. The degree has been completed once a student has passed both the coursework and the mini-dissertation component.
The coursework aims to provide students with an overview of those fields of Computer Science in which the department conducts research:
- Research Methods (compulsory)
- Computational Geometry for 3D Printing
- Databases for Data Scientists
- Distributed Scientific Computing
- Evolutionary Computation
- Information Retrieval
- Intelligent Systems
- Introduction to ICT for Development
- Introduction to Image Processing and Computer Vision
- Logics for Artificial Intelligence
- Multi-Dimensional Data Visualization
- Networks and Internet Systems
- Ontology Engineering
Upon successful completion of the coursework component, students will be required to register for the mini-dissertation component and complete a suitable research project under supervision of an appropriate computer science academic staff member. The research component will expose the student to research methodology, experimental design, data analysis techniques, and dissertation writing skills. Students should be in a position to submit the final dissertation before the end of the second year.