MSc Built Environment - Sustainable Heritage (Data Science)

Data and digital technologies play a fundamental role in contemporary society – and cultural heritage is no exception. As a Data Science student on the Sustainable Heritage MSc, you develop interdisciplinary data science skills and apply them to real-world heritage contexts, including historic buildings and sites, landscapes, museums and collections. This accredited degree combines applied knowledge with research-led, hands-on learning and fieldwork. It prepares you to become a skilled data scientist, working through the dynamic lens of cultural heritage. The opportunities for using data science in different contexts are vast. Employers from increasingly diverse sectors now require people with skills in a range of state-of-the-art methods and technologies to understand, manage and exploit data. This degree pioneers a new way of teaching data science through application in the cross-disciplinary context of cultural heritage. You develop advanced data science skills, such as coding, crowd-sourced data science, machine learning and data visualisation. You also explore the complexities of acquisition, analysis and exploitation of the variety of data that is generated and used in heritage contexts, including data generated through analysis and measurement, imaging and surveying, citizen science, and digitally born data. Data science underpins much of modern science. By examining the topic through the lens of cultural heritage, we emphasise the human side of data science. Studying and applying data science methods to heritage helps you develop a broader with the ability to consider the needs of users, the public and a broad range of stakeholders, alongside the more technical aspects of data science. Students from all academic and professional backgrounds are welcome to apply. The Data Science route is open to, but not limited to, applicants with a technical background such as statistics or data science, as well as applicants from other disciplines (e.g., conservation, curation, history) that want to develop data science skills. This degree route is suited both to recent graduates and early or mid-career professionals looking to retrain or up-skill. This programme is also available on a modular (flexible) basis, with a duration of 5 calendar years.

Normally a minimum of a second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Applicants with degrees of a lower classification but with considerable senior-level professional experience may also be accepted. Please note that a special qualifying examination may be set.