Outside Course List for Informatics Students 2026/27

This page provides a list of popular outside courses for first and second year Informatics students. There’s advice just for second years near the bottom. If you’re unsure what to do, there is a separate page with rules and advice.

If you can't log into Path, make the links point to the DRPS.

Common compulsory Year 1 courses

For reference, most Informatics students take these courses, with one optional course in Semester 2, and 0–2 optional courses in Semester 1, depending on which of the courses you need to take. See rules and advice for details. (Computer Science and Mathematics students have no space for an option in Semester 2 and take at most one optional course in Semester 1.)

Additional compulsory courses on Year 1 CS+Maths degree

Computer Science and Mathematics students take these courses, which are not generally available. On request, a limited number of other Informatics students may take these courses as options. If you request to take these courses, you must request to take both of them.

Popular optional courses for Year 1 or 2

These are popular courses with large capacities open to Informatics students. Some of these courses could still fill up, but you are more likely to get on one of your preferences if you include some of these courses in your options. Informatics 1 - Cognitive Science will always have places for Informatics students.

Challenge Courses for Year 1 or 2

These are the University's challenge courses, plus some related courses. For Informatics students we particularly highlight Living in the Anthropocene (with lecturers from across Science and Engineering), Understanding Society with Big Data: Computational Social Science (led by Informatics), and The Future of Energy (a numerate course run by Physics).

Miscellaneous Outside Courses for Year 1 or 2

Every year some Informatics students find other 20-credit Level 7 and 8 courses that interest them from the rest of the course catalogue. Below is a selection of these, although places are not guaranteed. Some other courses you might find are not available to Informatics students: for example, you may not select the Data Science class in Maths, as Informatics has its own compulsory year 2 Data Science course.

Language courses for Year 1 and 2

Language courses are listed separately here; these are popular and fill up quickly. Read more about Open Language courses.

Common compulsory Year 2 courses

If you take all of these, they fill your 120 credits. Not all degrees require all of them.

Other outside course choices for Year 2

You are allowed to take any Level 7 or 8 course in Year 1 if you have the pre-requisites. However, the following courses are intended for second years, and many of them have pre-requisites. Most second years pick from the larger sets of options for years 1 and 2 above.