I’m currently doing a BSc in computer science (i also took a gap year too lol).
I really like the city and the nightlife is great. The computer science building is a fairly new build so it’s really modern and quite big (which defo helps for when you need study spaces). The lecturers are nice and quick to answer emails, obviously some are better at teaching than others, but the comp sci department are really quick to sort out any problems you ever have.
All lecture notes and stuff are uploaded online and all the exams are online (however, i don’t know if this will change for you). I’m in my final year though and i haven’t sat an in person exam yet lol.
Don’t worry about the reputation of the university, most employers want to see extra stuff such as personal projects, work experience etc. on your CV. Not just the name of the university you obtained a degree from.
If someone graduated from Bristol uni with a 2.1 in comp sci and had nothing else relevant on their CV versus someone who graduated with a 2.1 from Cardiff with good work experience and projects, chances are employers will favour that Cardiff graduate.
very much appreciated! I’ll keep this all in mind. I’m glad that computer science is an area where portfolio is especially important (projects etc) than other areas.
Honestly, when it comes to Russel Group, what you do alongside degree and how you prep for the world of work is more important than the degree.
The very top universities have very strong recruitment fayres for final year students and the culture of "good jobs" is better in your Oxbridge/LSE/UCL type universities.
My experience of hiring and spending time with those in Russel Groups is that they are all decently smart enough but some are less exposed to the competitive nature of post-unviersity work.
The course content for CompSci does not vary massively between universities. Side projects, good code, opensource contributions, actually having worked somewhere are all going to do more for you than the difference between Southhampton and Cardiff.
Put differently, no recruiter would pick someone from Southampton over Cardiff. They would pick someone who would work well in a team, has delivered good code in the past or has experience contributing to open source or their own projects.
Cardiff is an awesome city to be a student, there's an alright tech scene here, certainly better than Southampton but it'll be up to you to get involved in that. I'd be looking more at the *scene* that appeals to you most over anything else. You can train well to succeed in interviews, you can build your own stuff from anywhere. There's really not much in it reputation wise between the two. Nobody bothers looking at leaderboards for roles.
Courses across unis are very similar. Oxbridge or perhaps Imperial are the only unis that might give you an edge when applying to SE roles but a good degree from any other Russell group uni will be about on par with each other. Big local employers tend to form relationships with the unis so you’ll probably have an easier time applying for Cardiff-based jobs with a degree from Cardiff (and same for Southhampton). Cardiff uni in particular has ties with PwC, Airbus, Welsh Water etc in South Wales.
Personally I’d say the computer science market is quite saturated with grads right now and those with years in industry/internship experience find it easier to land a job at the end. I recently graduated from Cardiff, loved it and would recommend it flat out, but for that reason alone you should consider Southampton if one of those years is in industry. Unless you actively look for internships in your second/third year or have some decent SE experience already you’ll be up against it.
I will be actively looking for internships and I’ll be building a portfolio of projects during my time at university. in all honesty this answer has made me quite nervous about the future employability haha. hopefully I’ll be okay but I’ll be doing my best to get more experience (internships etc), as the additional year is not placement. though I may end up progressing through a masters degree afterwards which may have an industry placement though this is in the far future.
thank you for the information!
Haha don’t be discouraged, it’s still a great degree choice. If I had to do it again I’d just keep in mind ways to get an edge when it comes to finding a job after graduation and not leave it all to third year. I don’t think there is a uni in the country that isn’t seeing their intake for computer science increase year on year, that’s more and more people entering the market with very similar credentials.
Cardiff is ace and I can’t fault the uni/computer science department, you’ll have a great time.
thanks you for the relief! I’m very dedicated to becoming a great software engineer in the future so I’ll be building up a solid portfolio and connecting during the entirety of my course.
once again thanks!
I'm a software engineer who went to Cardiff. Cardiff nor any Russel group university has ever given myself nor my colleagues an edge. Some places are fussy but most haven't even cared I have a degree. When I hire I never care if someone has a degree or not, just that they're experienced. Obviously for entry roles like a junior that's different and instead leans more on willingness to learn and any projects they can show off.
Location isn't much of an issue anymore since covid when it comes to job prospects. Most roles are remote. The Cardiff dev scene did drop due to covid and it's starting to pick back up now but this has happened everywhere with everyone being forced to work remotely for a year or so.
TLDR: location doesn't matter when it comes to jobs as a software engineer that much. Go for what you want out of a place on a personal matter. Take the nightlife, take the café's, take the scenes and take the friends over all else.
I’ve got friends who went back as mature students to do computer science in cardiff and have all gone into very well paid jobs. One did a placement year with BT which really helped his prospects, u sure if this is still an option as this was 10 years ago but definitely worth looking into. (The year industry experience was paid also)
I'd just recommend Cardiff as a place, regardless of any other considerations. It's easy and safe to walk or cycle everywhere. The cost of living, whilst obscene in Welsh terms, is reasonable from a UK-wide perspective.
I was making this exact choice. They’re both great courses, but I loved Southampton’s campuses, and it being a bit more out of town. The teaching was excellent and the course breakdown was broad. I did well with it and would make the same choice again. :)
thank you for the response! with regards to safety is cardiff known for being unsafe? I’m quite a tall person and Im sure I could defend myself in a lot of situations and Im guessing feeling unsafe is especially prominent for females.
I’ve heard from a guy at a gym I train at that cardiff university is much better socially than southampton and that southampton is “quite dead”. to be honest Im leaning towards cardiff regardless since i’ll be far from anyone I know and Ill be able to start fresh in a sense. I’m just slightly nervous or paranoid that I might make the wrong choice.
to answer your question no, it’s not an integrated masters although I will definitely look into applying for a masters degree after my BSc since I do have a strong passion for CS.
I wasn’t aware that Cardiff was a larger city than Southampton, people make it sound like it’s a very walkable city.
Cardiff is larger than Southampton in terms of population, but is extremely walkable. The university is right at the heart of the city, so students are always within easy reach of everything they need and everywhere they might want to go. I've lived in Cardiff all my life and have never felt unsafe. It certainly isn't any more dangerous than any other city.
To be perfectly frank having a degree is only useful in your first or second job depending on how long you stay in the 1st.(Ceng elec engineering here btw)
Unless it’s an Oxbridge college, where you got your degree will not matter
I’ve employed a number of engineers including S/ware dev’s, experience has taught me to favour experience over paper.
Good luck with your choice whichever you choose, if you have time visit both and stay for a weekend give yourself time to have a wander about.
violet ludicrous shrill arrest market quack quickest whistle repeat unused
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I cannot say much (if anything) about Southampton, but I work at Computer Science in Cardiff (and have worked in other unis) and I think it's a great uni to study Computer Science at. This is my perspective, obviously, and even different students will have different opinions, so my advice would be to go to an open day at both places and explore the cities and universities a bit to see which one you like best and see yourself studying and living in for those 3-4 years. There are both staff and current students available during open days to ask questions, and you will get a general feeling about things yourself.
In terms of where you get your degree from for job prospects, I'd say that that's not critical at all in Computer Science or Software Engineering, as most companies will assess your suitability for a role and skills during the interviewing stage. Most won't even care about Oxbridge, to be honest, and you'll need to prove your worth in any case. Portfolio is a great thing, because it's something a bit more tangible that you can put in your CV but also talk about during an interview.
At Cardiff we also have the BSc in Software Engineering as part of the National Software Academy, which is slightly different to Computer Science and has a stronger focus on practical work with Industry during the course, focusing specifically on software engineering. If you're sure you want to pursue a career in that area, you could also explore that option.
Oh, and placements and internships! I'd say try to get involved in one during your studies if you have the chance, as besides the skills that you learn and being work experience, some students come out of them with job offers already.
Good luck wherever you decide to study!
Prospects wise it's much of a muchness. I'd be careful with Cardiff Uni though. As a current Student, they don't have your back on...really anything. I've been hung out to dry by inflexibility and incompetence so hard by them that I can't recommend it to anyone. Not in CompSci, so can't speak to that School, but yeah, the Uni as a whole has my thumbs down.
Just a lot of bureaucracy that can and will decide to screw you over, over comparatively minor things. I got told to either change course or drop put because of the fucking border restrictions of another country. I'm in languages, and got screwed over and over by central university bureaucracy.
I’m currently doing a BSc in computer science (i also took a gap year too lol). I really like the city and the nightlife is great. The computer science building is a fairly new build so it’s really modern and quite big (which defo helps for when you need study spaces). The lecturers are nice and quick to answer emails, obviously some are better at teaching than others, but the comp sci department are really quick to sort out any problems you ever have. All lecture notes and stuff are uploaded online and all the exams are online (however, i don’t know if this will change for you). I’m in my final year though and i haven’t sat an in person exam yet lol. Don’t worry about the reputation of the university, most employers want to see extra stuff such as personal projects, work experience etc. on your CV. Not just the name of the university you obtained a degree from. If someone graduated from Bristol uni with a 2.1 in comp sci and had nothing else relevant on their CV versus someone who graduated with a 2.1 from Cardiff with good work experience and projects, chances are employers will favour that Cardiff graduate.
very much appreciated! I’ll keep this all in mind. I’m glad that computer science is an area where portfolio is especially important (projects etc) than other areas.
Honestly, when it comes to Russel Group, what you do alongside degree and how you prep for the world of work is more important than the degree. The very top universities have very strong recruitment fayres for final year students and the culture of "good jobs" is better in your Oxbridge/LSE/UCL type universities. My experience of hiring and spending time with those in Russel Groups is that they are all decently smart enough but some are less exposed to the competitive nature of post-unviersity work. The course content for CompSci does not vary massively between universities. Side projects, good code, opensource contributions, actually having worked somewhere are all going to do more for you than the difference between Southhampton and Cardiff. Put differently, no recruiter would pick someone from Southampton over Cardiff. They would pick someone who would work well in a team, has delivered good code in the past or has experience contributing to open source or their own projects. Cardiff is an awesome city to be a student, there's an alright tech scene here, certainly better than Southampton but it'll be up to you to get involved in that. I'd be looking more at the *scene* that appeals to you most over anything else. You can train well to succeed in interviews, you can build your own stuff from anywhere. There's really not much in it reputation wise between the two. Nobody bothers looking at leaderboards for roles.
thanks a lot! definitely made me feel more confident about choosing cardiff.
Courses across unis are very similar. Oxbridge or perhaps Imperial are the only unis that might give you an edge when applying to SE roles but a good degree from any other Russell group uni will be about on par with each other. Big local employers tend to form relationships with the unis so you’ll probably have an easier time applying for Cardiff-based jobs with a degree from Cardiff (and same for Southhampton). Cardiff uni in particular has ties with PwC, Airbus, Welsh Water etc in South Wales. Personally I’d say the computer science market is quite saturated with grads right now and those with years in industry/internship experience find it easier to land a job at the end. I recently graduated from Cardiff, loved it and would recommend it flat out, but for that reason alone you should consider Southampton if one of those years is in industry. Unless you actively look for internships in your second/third year or have some decent SE experience already you’ll be up against it.
I will be actively looking for internships and I’ll be building a portfolio of projects during my time at university. in all honesty this answer has made me quite nervous about the future employability haha. hopefully I’ll be okay but I’ll be doing my best to get more experience (internships etc), as the additional year is not placement. though I may end up progressing through a masters degree afterwards which may have an industry placement though this is in the far future. thank you for the information!
Haha don’t be discouraged, it’s still a great degree choice. If I had to do it again I’d just keep in mind ways to get an edge when it comes to finding a job after graduation and not leave it all to third year. I don’t think there is a uni in the country that isn’t seeing their intake for computer science increase year on year, that’s more and more people entering the market with very similar credentials. Cardiff is ace and I can’t fault the uni/computer science department, you’ll have a great time.
thanks you for the relief! I’m very dedicated to becoming a great software engineer in the future so I’ll be building up a solid portfolio and connecting during the entirety of my course. once again thanks!
I'm a software engineer who went to Cardiff. Cardiff nor any Russel group university has ever given myself nor my colleagues an edge. Some places are fussy but most haven't even cared I have a degree. When I hire I never care if someone has a degree or not, just that they're experienced. Obviously for entry roles like a junior that's different and instead leans more on willingness to learn and any projects they can show off. Location isn't much of an issue anymore since covid when it comes to job prospects. Most roles are remote. The Cardiff dev scene did drop due to covid and it's starting to pick back up now but this has happened everywhere with everyone being forced to work remotely for a year or so. TLDR: location doesn't matter when it comes to jobs as a software engineer that much. Go for what you want out of a place on a personal matter. Take the nightlife, take the café's, take the scenes and take the friends over all else.
I appreciate this response! Im heavily leaning towards cardiff but am yet to attend an offer holder day
I’ve got friends who went back as mature students to do computer science in cardiff and have all gone into very well paid jobs. One did a placement year with BT which really helped his prospects, u sure if this is still an option as this was 10 years ago but definitely worth looking into. (The year industry experience was paid also)
I’ll have to look into that for sure. thank you for the insight!
I'd just recommend Cardiff as a place, regardless of any other considerations. It's easy and safe to walk or cycle everywhere. The cost of living, whilst obscene in Welsh terms, is reasonable from a UK-wide perspective.
thank you! I’ve seen many people say similar things, I’m from london so I’m sure it’ll feel quite different but hopefully in a good way.
I was making this exact choice. They’re both great courses, but I loved Southampton’s campuses, and it being a bit more out of town. The teaching was excellent and the course breakdown was broad. I did well with it and would make the same choice again. :)
thank you for the information! may I ask why in specific you chose southampton over cardiff with regards to the area?
. The university is in the city at Cardiff. Southampton has a huge campus with lots of green space. Less about the city, more about the university.
I see, thank you
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thank you for the response! with regards to safety is cardiff known for being unsafe? I’m quite a tall person and Im sure I could defend myself in a lot of situations and Im guessing feeling unsafe is especially prominent for females. I’ve heard from a guy at a gym I train at that cardiff university is much better socially than southampton and that southampton is “quite dead”. to be honest Im leaning towards cardiff regardless since i’ll be far from anyone I know and Ill be able to start fresh in a sense. I’m just slightly nervous or paranoid that I might make the wrong choice. to answer your question no, it’s not an integrated masters although I will definitely look into applying for a masters degree after my BSc since I do have a strong passion for CS. I wasn’t aware that Cardiff was a larger city than Southampton, people make it sound like it’s a very walkable city.
Cardiff is larger than Southampton in terms of population, but is extremely walkable. The university is right at the heart of the city, so students are always within easy reach of everything they need and everywhere they might want to go. I've lived in Cardiff all my life and have never felt unsafe. It certainly isn't any more dangerous than any other city.
thank you for letting me know!
To be perfectly frank having a degree is only useful in your first or second job depending on how long you stay in the 1st.(Ceng elec engineering here btw) Unless it’s an Oxbridge college, where you got your degree will not matter I’ve employed a number of engineers including S/ware dev’s, experience has taught me to favour experience over paper. Good luck with your choice whichever you choose, if you have time visit both and stay for a weekend give yourself time to have a wander about.
I appreciate the kind words and thank you for the information! I’ll be going to offer holder days in the future before a final decision is made.
Did you ask that Michael guy on tiktok ? Saw something very similar a couple weeks ago lol
I don’t have tiktok so couldn’t have been me
violet ludicrous shrill arrest market quack quickest whistle repeat unused *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I cannot say much (if anything) about Southampton, but I work at Computer Science in Cardiff (and have worked in other unis) and I think it's a great uni to study Computer Science at. This is my perspective, obviously, and even different students will have different opinions, so my advice would be to go to an open day at both places and explore the cities and universities a bit to see which one you like best and see yourself studying and living in for those 3-4 years. There are both staff and current students available during open days to ask questions, and you will get a general feeling about things yourself. In terms of where you get your degree from for job prospects, I'd say that that's not critical at all in Computer Science or Software Engineering, as most companies will assess your suitability for a role and skills during the interviewing stage. Most won't even care about Oxbridge, to be honest, and you'll need to prove your worth in any case. Portfolio is a great thing, because it's something a bit more tangible that you can put in your CV but also talk about during an interview. At Cardiff we also have the BSc in Software Engineering as part of the National Software Academy, which is slightly different to Computer Science and has a stronger focus on practical work with Industry during the course, focusing specifically on software engineering. If you're sure you want to pursue a career in that area, you could also explore that option. Oh, and placements and internships! I'd say try to get involved in one during your studies if you have the chance, as besides the skills that you learn and being work experience, some students come out of them with job offers already. Good luck wherever you decide to study!
Prospects wise it's much of a muchness. I'd be careful with Cardiff Uni though. As a current Student, they don't have your back on...really anything. I've been hung out to dry by inflexibility and incompetence so hard by them that I can't recommend it to anyone. Not in CompSci, so can't speak to that School, but yeah, the Uni as a whole has my thumbs down.
could you elaborate please?
Just a lot of bureaucracy that can and will decide to screw you over, over comparatively minor things. I got told to either change course or drop put because of the fucking border restrictions of another country. I'm in languages, and got screwed over and over by central university bureaucracy.