FIFTEEN years ago the web was barely a ripple on the sea of international business. Today the internet and the web are an integral part of global commerce. In this new online business world, it is the computing MSc students creating new applications and technologies that allow us to use the internet for shopping, social networking, information provision and a host of other activities, who help to define the world in which we live.

Computing MSc programmes focusing on web-related technologies can be divided into courses suitable for students with a computing sciences first degree, and conversion programmes for graduates in other disciplines.

At the University of Essex, Simon Lucas teaches the MSc in advanced web application programming. He says: “We expect our students to have graduated in a numerate discipline. They must have done computing and be competent programmers when they arrive. Usually they have a computer sciences background, or have done a science with some computing.”

During the programme, participants cover an array of technologies required for creating web applications, including advanced object oriented programming, object databases, XML, web services and Ruby on Rails, for example. Otherwise students may take the MSc in e-commerce technology, which, in addition to web technologies, includes an interdisciplinary element covering law and marketing.

Graduates wanting to switch into e-commerce and web-related technologies from a noncomputing background, should take a masters designed to ease that transition, such as the MSc in enterprise web development at Napier University, Edinburgh.

Bruce Cowan, postgraduate programmes director, says: “The programme is designed to convert those people without an undergraduate degree into a computing career, so students come from a wide background, from divinity to engineering.”

But do not think that the programme is technology lite. “Say you are on a website looking for flights. You enter the details and get to a unique web page. To do that, somebody has written programmes that live on a server, query a database, get results, format them into a web page, and pass that to your web page. We teach all the skills from developing the web page, to the database and back.”

Computing masters that focus on web technologies tend to have a practical bias. Students on the University of Essex programme do group projects in the spring term and then a dissertation project over the summer with quite sophisticated applications, on the lines of social networking websites such as MySpace. After graduation, most students get jobs in the industry, where there is a big demand for their skills.

The British Computer Society (BCS) provides accreditation for computing MSc programmes, based on a number of factors, including the quality of delivery, the student experience and the relevance of the learning outcomes in the world of work. Mike Rodd, BCS director of learned society and external relations, says: “There is a fall in the number of students studying computer subjects and a rise in demand for people with skills in web technologies and e-commerce. So there could not be a better time to do a masters in this area.”

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