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Ask HN: What is the best university in Europe for MS in Computer Science?

9 points by diptanu ↗ HN
Hi HN,

What is the best university in Europe, for Computer Science? Are there any university which has the same reputation as its counterparts in US?

24 comments

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ErrantX
Probably not what your looking for but I am in the middle of doing a postgraduate Masters (an MSC) with the Open University (www.open.ac.uk). They're distance learning - but are highly recommended (i.e. they are in no way the "poor mans" alternative).

Alternatively I can recommend Leeds University, UK (where I did my undergraduate degree in engineering - not CS). The Electronic Engineering department wasn't great but the CS dept. is, from the little I saw, pretty accomplished. Though I couldnt comment on their reputation :)

(EDIT: Leeds has 2 Universities. I refer to the University of Leeds not Leeds Metropolitan.)

RiderOfGiraffes
I believe that most courses and most degrees with the Open University are excellent in scope and delivery. Neil Fraser has a different experience:

http://neil.fraser.name/news/2006/09/01/

ErrantX
Ouch.

I admit there are limitations. I think dissertation wise it depends what tutor you get (I wont start my diss till next year but my tutor seems pretty clued in :)).

jacquesm
Well, it highly depends on what you want to study, computer science is pretty broad.

Probably the best way to figure this out is to pick your chosen subfield, then find out who is prominent in that field and then where they lecture.

For instance, Amsterdam has Tanenbaum, but if you're not into OS research then that is probably not going to help you. (I'm not even sure if he still lectures).

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yread
Yes, he does. Not much though. But he has quite some students working under him. Van Steen is also there and very active. But it largely depends on your field - software engineering sucks but AI, OS, DS or bioinformatics are pretty good I think.

Plus it's loads of fun studying in Amsterdam ;)

halo
Based on reputation, it's undoubtedly Cambridge and Imperial College London.
tamberg
ETH Zürich (http://www.ethz.ch/) for Bertrand Meyer (Eiffel), Ueli Maurer, ...

EPF Lausanne (http://www.epfl.ch/) for Martin Odersky (Scala), ...

ido
Was about to say ETH Zürich too.

Not sure they have an all English program though.

bgimpert
Imperial and Cambridge, in that order.
shadchnev
Imperial College. In addition to a very strong Computing department (see other reviews, league tables or just believe me, I've got MSc Advanced Computing from there), it's situated in London, where many exciting IT companies are based. I would never have met so many great hackers/founders etc. if I chose not to study in London.
katamole
Imperial College or Cambridge University. Both have excellent CS departments and lots of interesting research going on.

And if you end up going to Imperial, I'll see you in October!

samstokes
Cambridge has the advantage that people outside the UK don't know whether you mean Cambridge, UK or Cambridge, Massachusetts. So it's almost like you went to MIT as well.

(Tongue firmly in cheek.)

dazzawazza
I went to Imperial and while it's deeply boring (for a practical person like myself, there is a LOT of theory) it is a really great course and it will set you up for a life of further learning which is after all what is important.

I've not met students from ANY other university that had such a broad and complete introduction to Software Engineering.

tewks
Definitely Imperial over Cambridge for CS (as well as most engineering and science).
zacharyvoase
The best university is the one you feel is right for you. You could go to the best university in the world, but if you don’t fit together, you’ll accomplish nothing. Conversely, you could end up going to a relatively ‘poor’ university and click with it; you’ll end up making so much more out of the experience.

I’d recommend that you get a shortlist of a few universities that appeal to you (around 3-5, depending on budget and time restrictions), and visit them.

neuromanta
You ppl recommend only UK universities... this is sad, in my opinion. What I like about Europe is that it's the frontier of West and East. Thinking only about the west is narrow mindedness. The western learning philosophy is too "materialist" in my opinion, that's why there is no soul in western (american and english) science. I live in Hungary, and there are some very good universities here too, where you don't have to narrow your "mindsight", as I call it. I don't talk about chinese and indian computer science... it sucks, I know it very well. But look at Japan or Korea... CS is very advanced there, but they could preserve the soul of science too. There are some countries and universities in Europe too, where you can find the same.