Course Details

Overview

Information used effectively, drives good decision making in organisations, businesses, the third sector, and governments, bringing new opportunities to solve the big challenges our society faces.

The BSc, in bringing together technical, creative, and communication skills, can equip you to engage productively and confidently with these challenges, and act as changemakers across a range of careers in a range of different sectors.

UCL East is located in the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Based at our new campus in Stratford, UCL East, you will be part of a community of students studying interdisciplinary degrees in both arts and science subjects that are focused on planning, designing and making, with a strong emphasis on active engagement with communities to effect change.

Benefits

UCL’s BSc Information in Society is envisaged to be a strong asset for careers where real-world problems need information-driven solutions.

You’ll be part of the world-renowned Department of Information Studies, which has been training information professionals for more than a century. With a solid set of interdisciplinary skills from technical know-how, to effective teamwork strategies, a flexible approach to communication, and a deep understanding of ethics and information practice, you’ll be ready to take on leading roles solving global challenges.

Based in London at UCL East, you’ll be studying at our brand new campus in East Bank, the education and cultural Olympic legacy of London 2012, alongside partners the BBC, the V&A, Sadler’s Wells and UAL London College of Fashion. You’ll also have the chance to take optional and elective modules (pending availability) at our Bloomsbury campus in the heart of the Knowledge Quarter and on the doorstep of the British Library and British Museum.

These flexible optional modules across a range of departments allow you to pursue a variety of interests. Depending on your choices, you will learn from leading information specialists, archivists, geographers, computer scientists, librarians, anthropologists, engineers, linguists, historians, sociologists, digital humanists, and experts in the publishing industries.

Curriculum (structure)

Two students are studying on their laptop computers in the book-lined library. One student has a beard and is wearing a blue shirt. The other student is wearing a grey hoodie, a hijab, and large headphones.

Your first year provides a balanced foundation for your degree, introducing technical skills (programming, maths, web technologies), and a critical understanding of how societies use information in decision-making (social anthropology or social theory, ethics, information literacy). No matter your academic background, this first year provides the foundation on which you will build your knowledge and skills in Years 2 and 3 of your studies.

In the second year you will deepen your knowledge and skills to address increasingly complex information problems that bridge the socio-technical divide. From digital media platforms to the information life cycle, to data mining and databases, the focus of the second year is to take those foundational skills into real-world scenarios. You will take four compulsory modules, and can choose two further optional or elective modules located at either UCL East or Bloomsbury, subject to availability. These can include picking up a new foreign language, for example, if you wish to add to your international skillset.

In your final year, you have the chance to focus and specialise towards a career or study path that most interests you. You will take three core modules, and have a range of choices for two additional options from our offering at UCL East or Bloomsbury, dependent on availability. This includes the chance to apply for a specialist masters-level module from within the Information Studies department. The degree culminates with a dissertation, in which you will develop an independent and original piece of research under the direction of an academic supervisor.

Modules

You will take each of the following modules each year. All modules are worth 15 credits unless otherwise stated.

Year 1 (Level 4)

Uses, Abuses, and Ethics of Information (30 credits)

Information and data are not neutral, and never have been. This module will introduce students to the complexities of information in practice and why it matters. It will be taught through a series of case studies and special topics spread across time and space, that cover a range of important ethical, legal, and informational debates. A broad chronological theme with a wide geographic coverage builds awareness that information and the challenges it presents are neither new, nor limited to Western culture.

This is an opportunity for students to think not just what information can do, but the ethics and legal implications of its use and who wins or loses when information is applied to a problem. This module will enable students to consider international debates, conflict, change and synergies of information use and abuse, including the need to consider decolonisation narratives.

How the Web Works (30 credits)

This technology-focused module will introduce students to the Web, where it came from, how it has evolved, how it works today, and where it might be going in future. Students will gain a strong understanding of the technologies behind the Internet and the Web, and will build practical skills in those technologies while using the most suitable web development tools.

This is an opportunity for students to build a strong socio-technical foundation for the rest of the degree, as well as to learn strategies for acquiring technical skills, including troubleshooting techniques and peer learning/support strategies with relevance to real-world practice.

Information Literacy

Information literacy considers how and why people interact with information, including finding, seeking, evaluating, sharing and avoiding it. From search engines and social media, to libraries and archives, to word of mouth and advice from family, we all have a myriad of ways of gathering information to inform our decisions and our lives. Understanding information literacy’s role in sculpting our information seeking and application landscape is essential for designing ethical and human-centred information systems and structures.

Introduction to Programming

The module aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of programming and problem solving. As part of the module students will be introduced to procedural programming constructs followed by object-oriented paradigm. The module is designed to be practical and offer ample opportunities for students to practice writing smaller programmes and working on larger projects to put theory into practice and develop programming, debugging and testing skills along the way.

You will then choose one 15 credit optional module from the following choices:

And the admissions tutor will help you choose one of the following mathematics modules:

Foundations of Statistical Methods: This is an introductory module for common statistical concepts and methods, with an introduction to statistical computing, designed for students with a good foundation in maths (e.g., A level or equivalent). This mathematics-focused module early in the degree will introduce students to the fundamental concepts in statistics needed to enable further study of technical subjects in the field of Information Studies and to work effectively with computational tools.
Mathematics and Statistics in Information Studies: This 1st year undergraduate module covers mathematical foundations and fundamental statistical concepts required for developing a broad range of data and information processing skills. The module aims to prepare students, including those who had limited opportunities to study the subjects prior, to frame problems in the domain of information studies, reason and propose solutions around these using mathematical and statistical methods. The module is intended to prepare students to take on subjects such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Graph Databases and Logic. Students will have good maths competency but may not have A level maths or equivalent.

Year 2 (Level 5)

Information Organisation and Description (30 credits): This information science module expands upon principles established in the first year of the BSc Information in Society, by introducing students to the principles, practices, and ethical issues of the three pillars of: description, metadata, and knowledge organisation. Through lectures, seminars, and small group activities, students explore why these are important what impact they can have and how they contribute when information is used in society.
Analysing Textual Data at Scale (30 credits): What do you do with a million books? In the past two decades, web users, libraries, governments, and corporations have been creating, digitising, and publishing information at an unprecedented rate. A technical skills module focused on solving humanities research and information problems, this module provides theoretical foundations and practical strategies for computationally analysing textual data effectively and efficiently at scale. Using a humanities corpus of texts set as a case study each year by the tutor, students will learn computationally driven methods and techniques aimed at addressing that opening question.
Politics of Platforms: This humanities-focused module will introduce students to critical trends in digital media studies, with a focus on social digital platforms, including but not limited to social media, news media, video games, and virtual communities. Designed as a complement to the more technical modules on the programme and building on the foundation of humanities skills in the first year, the module provides students with critical reasoning skills that are vital for understanding and articulating the strengths, limits, benefits, and problems of social online spaces.
Database Systems: The purpose of this module is to provide an overview of the theory and practice of database systems: data and database design, use and management, with particular emphasis on relational systems. Students will also develop basic applied proficiency in using Structured Query Language, or SQL, which is a standard database query and management language widely used for working with relational databases.

You will then choose two optional modules from the following choices:

Evidence Based Reasoning

Being able to assess what does and/or should count as evidence for an assertion, claim, or policy in different contexts and domains, and what counts as a reasonable evidence-based argument in different circumstances, is a fundamental skill that information profession students should acquire.

This module will draw out and make explicit differences and similarities in evidence-based reasoning principles and practice across different fields, domains, and professions. Students will consider, for example, when it is appropriate to follow the legal principle of “proof beyond reasonable doubt”, the scientific principle of “experimental reproducibility”, or the “precautionary principle”, to name a few, is a fundamental skill that all undergraduates, and in particular information profession students, should acquire.

ENGF0024 - Collaborative Design for Society
Environment and Society
Language module (13 options)

Year 3 (Level 6)

Information and Cultural Spaces: Information spaces are conduits for the transfer of knowledge from one mind to another. Sometimes these spaces are physical, such as libraries, bookshops, or newsstands. Others are virtual: from social media, to special interest forums, to the dark web. These ‘spaces’ are in constant dialogue, and this module helps students to explore that dialogue, focusing on how information is disseminated and received in a variety of information spaces and by a variety of audiences (both intentionally targeted or otherwise).
Protecting and Managing Creative Content: Protecting and Managing Creative Content is designed to enable students to experience the benefits of cross-disciplinary learning with peers in CAH pathways, as well as with those external to UCL from industry, the third sector and other professions who work closely with people who design, develop and produce their own creative outputs. The starting point for this module is the fact that a creative output can be anything from a short story, book, or research paper to computer coding, a video, film, an art installation, a blogpost or a photograph or other curated output. You may have already been involved in the development of your own or someone else’s creative outputs and/ or as part of your degree programme, you are creating outputs, either on your own or as part of a group. So how can you capitalise on this creative process and develop an appreciation and practical knowledge to turn what you learn into something sustainable and accessible? What kinds of entrepreneurial thinking do you need to turn ideas into assets?
Dissertation: In this module, students will work with a supervisor to identify a chosen dissertation topic, and design and execute a substantial and challenging individual project running over Terms 1, 2 and 3. Students will apply and extend knowledge learned throughout their degree programme across technical and societal understandings of information and data in an independent dissertation. The module develops research skills and methods including in taught activities, allowing students to demonstrate rigorous research approaches in their dissertation, including reviewing the academic and practitioner literature, research design including forming one or more research questions, data collection and analysis, and presenting results. In some cases, students will work with an industry mentor or on a work-based project as part of their dissertation. Other topics may be more conceptual or theoretical.
Data Visualisation: This module introduces concepts related to data visualization, and develops practical skills in visualization. Specific themes include, principles of data visualization, types of visualization, meaning and mis-representation in visualisations, critical assessment of existing visualisations, acquiring, processing and preparing data, creating basic and more advanced visualisations using appropriate software, and geographic Information System principles.