Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Science (Digital Forensics) with international or placement year Keele University, UK

What is digital forensics?

The field of digital forensics has experienced significant growth in the last few years due to the rapid pace of technological development and its use in crime. From mobile devices to the internet, cybercrime creates significant financial losses to companies and threatens national and international security.  

Given the ongoing need for industry to be concerned with identifying, reporting and responding to security breaches, our Digital Forensics programme will enable you to locate and analyse evidence, conduct digital forensic investigations, undertake research to solve problems, write reports about your findings and compile evidence that would stand in a court of law.

Course overview

Our Computer Science (Digital Forensics) programme places emphasis on practical computer programming and software development. Initial modules provide a solid grounding in the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline, such as the handling and processing of evidence and the fundamentals of programming, computing and forensic science principles. You will learn how to develop computing applications for varied discipline specific problem domains, manage the development and use of computing systems and understand the techniques and processes that allow the recovery, trace and the capturing of digital data.

By following the Digital Forensics pathway, you will learn to locate and analyse evidence, conduct digital forensic investigations, undertake research to solve problems, write reports about your findings and compile evidence that would stand in a court of law. You will study in a digital forensic laboratory setting, which will be equipped with forensic workstations and forensic software typically found in digital forensic units. To complement and broaden your learning, you will also have the opportunity to explore optional modules in areas such as Interaction Design, Software Engineering and Criminalistic Methods. Your final year will culminate with the opportunity to deep dive into research focused modules (including a final year research project) relating to the specialist area of digital forensics.