Course description
MSc: 12 months full-time; 24 months part-time
PgDip: 9 months full-time; 21 months part-time
PgCert: 9 months full-time; 9 months part-time
After thousands of years mathematics is highly developed, yet continually growing, providing new insights and applications. The MSc programme offers courses, taught by experts, across a wide range and in depth. Not only is mathematics the medium for expressing knowledge about many physical phenomena, it is concerned with patterns, systems and structures unrestricted by any specific application. It is characterised by rigorous logical, and often ingenious, argument, gaining clarity and generality through abstraction. Many of its conclusions are striking and powerful. MSc students should develop a mature understanding of fundamental theories and analytical skills applicable to many situations.
Content
MSc students will take a total of 120 credits from a mixture of Level-4 Honours courses, level-M courses and Scottish Mathematical Sciences Training Centre (SMSTC)-delivered courses.
Students will take courses worth either 45 credits or 60 credits from those delivered by SMSTC. Of the balance of 75 credits or 60 credits, up to 30 credits may be chosen from the department’s final year Level-H courses with the remainder being taken from the following list of Level-M courses. The Level-M courses offered in a particular session will depend on student demand.
Level-H courses (15 credits)
• Algebraic number theory
• Algebraic topology
• Analytic number theory
• Automata
• Galois theory
• Linear analysis
• Differential geometry
• Group and module theory.
Level-M courses (15 credits)
• Advanced group theory
• Algebraic geometry & commutative algebra
• Category theory
• Complex algebraic curves
• Complex analysis 2
• Modern number theory and cryptography
• Ring and representation theory.
SMSTC courses (15 credits)
• Algebra 1
• Algebra 2
• Geometry and topology 1
• Geometry and topology 2
• Pure analysis 1
• Pure analysis 2.
Project stage
All MSc students must take the following:
• Research project (60 credits).