Postgraduate conversion courses in data science and artificial intelligence
About the funding
Latest scholarships
Up to £17 million will be made available to 31 higher education providers, including seven as part of a collaborative project. Funding will be available between April 2023 and March 2025 to support the delivery of scholarships worth £10,000 each.
In March 2023 we awarded up to £8.18 million to deliver 818 scholarships in the 2023-24 academic year. The awards were made as part of an open funding competition.
A further £8.18 million has now been confirmed to deliver a further 818 scholarships in the 2024-25 academic year.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced the funding competition in June 2022, which opened in September 2022.
The scholarships aim to encourage more women, black students, disabled students and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds into the technology industry.
These groups of students are currently significantly underrepresented in these types of courses, and in AI and data science industries.
The UK currently has a shortage of digital skills which estimates suggest costs the UK economy as much as £63 billion a year in potential GDP. So we also encourage employers to take part in the programme and to co-fund scholarships.
Assessment panel
As part of the assessment process, bids were reviewed by an external panel of experts in equality and diversity, AI, tech and industry.
|
Chair - Verity Hancock |
Principal and CEO, Leicester College, and OfS board member |
|
Nkechi Adeboye |
Student, London School of Economics and OfS student panel member |
|
Mark Martin MBE |
Assistant Professor in Computer Science, Northeastern University London, and Cofounder of UK Black Tech |
|
Obum Ekeke OBE |
Head of Education Partnerships, Deep Mind |
|
Clare Riley |
Education Skills Lead, Microsoft in the UK |
|
Matthew Forshaw |
Reader in Data Science, Newcastle University and Senior Advisor for Skills, The Alan Turing institute |
|
Jack Smith |
Head of Pathways and Funding Policy, OfS |
Programme funding
Programme funding is allocated on an annual basis. For 2023-24 we allocated £8.18 million in funding to 25 lead providers on the programme and for 2024-25 we have allocated £8.17 million in funding.
Previous funding
A total of £13.5 million worth of funding was provided between April 2020 and March 2023.
- £3.5 million was provided to develop postgraduate conversion courses.
- £10 million was provided to deliver 1,000 scholarships, worth £10,000 each, to groups underrepresented in the AI and data science sector to increase diversity, particularly for black, women and disabled students.
The scope of the programme was extended in 2021 to include the National Data Skills pilot.
| Provider | Course(s) |
|---|---|
|
University of Bradford |
Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics |
|
Teesside University |
Artificial Intelligence Data Science |
|
Birmingham City University |
Artificial Intelligence |
|
University of Birmingham |
MSc Responsible Data Science |
|
Brunel University London |
Data Science and Analytics Artificial Intelligence |
|
Coventry University |
Data Science |
|
University of Hull |
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science |
|
University of Keele |
Artificial Intelligence and Data Science |
|
Loughborough University |
Data Science |
|
Nottingham Trent University |
Data Science |
|
Sheffield Hallam University |
MSc Healthcare Analytics and Artificial Intelligence |
|
Solent University |
Applied AI and Data Science |
|
University of Essex |
Applied Data Science Data Science Artificial Intelligence |
|
University of Liverpool |
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence |
|
Newcastle University |
Data Science (MSc, PGDip, PGCert) |
|
University of Suffolk |
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence |
|
University of Sussex |
AI and Adaptive Systems Data Science Human and Social Data Sciences |
|
University of Wolverhampton |
Artificial Intelligence Data Science |
|
Aston University* |
Applied Artificial Intelligence |
|
University of Bath* |
Artificial Intelligence online |
|
Birkbeck, University of London* |
Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Data Science |
|
University of Exeter* |
Data Science with AI Cybersecuirty Analytics |
|
University of Gloucestershire* |
Data Science |
|
Manchester Metropolitan University* |
Postgraduate conversion course in artificial intelligence and data science |
|
University of Lancaster* |
MSc in Health Data Science at Lancaster University |
|
Queen Mary University of London* |
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence |
|
University of Sunderland* |
Applied Data Science |
|
University of the West of England* |
Data Science |
*These universities were involved in a collaborative bid led by the University of Coventry.
Read more about the evaluation findings so far.
Read our press releases
- New analysis shows over 7,600 students have enrolled on AI and data science courses to tackle digital skills gaps
- OfS confirms £8.1 million boost for postgraduate AI conversion courses as evaluation finds promising signs of increase in diversity of graduates
Your future in AI and data science
Last updated 28 September 2023 + show all updates
28 September 2023 - We have added details of the funding allocated for 2023-24.
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