St Mary’s Awarded £1.7m OfS Grant to Develop Computer Science Centre for Excellence

The Office for Students (OfS) has announced that St Mary’s University, Twickenham has been awarded a capital grant to develop a suite of computer science laboratories and teaching facilities on its campus in Strawberry Hill.

The grant, worth £1.7m, will enable the University to establish state-of-the-art facilities, allowing students joining its Computer Science BSc and MSc programmes to be a forefront of developments in computing.

Speaking of the grant, St Mary’s Vice-Chancellor Anthony McClaran said, “I am delighted that the Office for Students has awarded this funding to St Mary’s. The new facilities will mark a new chapter for the University, and I look forward to seeing students using them next year.”

The facilities, which will be amongst the most modern computer science facilities in the country when they open, will include state-of-the-art computing equipment in a contemporary setting designed to enhance the student experience and prepare them for the professional world.

The new Computer Science programmes have been designed collaboratively with industry IT experts and senior IT managers to equip graduates for the digital job market of the future. The degrees give students training in data management, artificial intelligence, cyber security, computer programming, cloud computing, IT service management and financial operations.

Dean of the Faculty of Sport, Health and Allied Science, Dr Leanne Griffiths, added, “These new courses mark our first steps into the STEM subject areas, and we are delighted that students joining next September will have access some of the most modern computer science facilities in the country. St Mary’s has a strong reputation in research and teaching excellence in the sport, psychological and health sciences and I am sure our computer science programmes will join this tradition.”