Canadian Immigration Updates
Review details about the recently announced changes to study and work permits that apply to master’s and doctoral degree students. Read more
Overview
The ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Department of Computer Science, established in May 1968, is one of the top computer science departments in North America. Recognized internationally for excellence in research and teaching with a conscious focus on interdisciplinary programs, the Department encourages diversity both within its community and areas of study, and plays a leadership role in research, teaching and outreach activities to champion the understanding and integration of Computer Science within all aspects of society.
For those students contemplating advanced studies in computer science at ÑÇÖÞÌìÌÃ, completing a master's degree before continuing to the PhD program confers several advantages. The two-year period of the master's first helps students decide whether a research career is the right career choice for them. If it is, taking this time helps give them the skills needed to pursue independent research. Second, the research experience gained can be very valuable as student work toward picking a PhD topic, as most professors in the department prefer that students shoulder this choice on their own. Third, a student who completes a master's degree and decides to work in industry prior to embarking on the full PhD has the opportunity to apply his or her skills and master's level education in the field and to take advantage of jobs that have attractive starting salaries.
What makes the program unique?
The ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Department of Computer Science has many contacts in the computing industry. A strong rapport between the industry and research communities is beneficial to both, especially in cases where the department focuses its research to developing real-world applications.
Quick Facts
Program Enquiries
Contact the program
Admission Information & Requirements
1) Check Eligibility
Minimum Academic Requirements
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at ÑÇÖÞÌìÌÃ). The graduate program that you are applying to may have additional requirements. Please review the specific requirements for applicants with credentials from institutions in:
Each program may set higher academic minimum requirements. Please review the carefully to understand the program requirements. Meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee admission as it is a competitive process.
English Language Test
Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application. Tests must have been taken within the last 24 months at the time of submission of your application.
Minimum requirements for the two most common English language proficiency tests to apply to this program are listed below:
TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based
Overall score requirement: 100
Reading
22
Writing
21
Speaking
21
Listening
22
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
Overall score requirement: 7.0
Reading
6.5
Writing
6.5
Speaking
6.5
Listening
6.5
Other Test Scores
Some programs require additional test scores such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Graduate Management Test (GMAT). The requirements for this program are:
The GRE is not required.
2) Meet Deadlines
3) Prepare Application
Transcripts
All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study. Document submission requirements depend on whether your institution of study is within Canada or outside of Canada.
Letters of Reference
A minimum of three references are required for application to graduate programs at ÑÇÖÞÌìÌÃ. References should be requested from individuals who are prepared to provide a report on your academic ability and qualifications.
Statement of Interest
Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Master of Science in Computer Science (MSc)
Citizenship Verification
Permanent Residents of Canada must provide a clear photocopy of both sides of the Permanent Resident card.
4) Apply Online
All applicants must complete an online application form and pay the application fee to be considered for admission to ÑÇÖÞÌìÌÃ.
Tuition & Financial Support
Tuition
| Fees | Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat | International |
|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | $116.25 | $168.25 |
| Tuition * | ||
| Installments per year | 3 | 3 |
| Tuition per installment | $1,875.34 | $3,294.66 |
| Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%) | $5,626.02 | $9,883.98 |
| Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible) | Ìý | $3,200.00 (-) |
| Other Fees and Costs | ||
| Student Fees (yearly) | $1,144.10 (approx.) | |
| Costs of living | Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies. | |
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Calendar, the ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Calendar entry will be held to be correct.
Financial Support
Applicants to ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.
Program Funding Packages
Full MSc students' support will vary depending on which path they take. The duration of guaranteed support is as follows:
* Thesis Masters: 2 years, $32,171/year
* Essay Masters: 20 months, $ 22,264/year
The funding package consists of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships.Ìý This support is contingent on full-time registration as a ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Graduate student, satisfactory performance in assigned teaching and research assistantship duties, and good standing with satisfactory progress in your academic performance. CS students are expected to apply for fellowships or scholarship to which they are eligible.
Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)
All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.
Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)
Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.
Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)
Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the .
Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)
Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.
Financial aid (need-based funding)
Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review .
All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.
Foreign government scholarships
Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.
Working while studying
The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.
International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work for unlimited hours and work for no more than 24 hours a week during academic sessions.
A good starting point to explore student jobs is the ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà program or a .
Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals
Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim or tax credits.
Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.
Please review on the student services website for more information.
Cost Estimator
Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.
Career Options
Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats
These statistics show data for the Master of Science in Computer Science (MSc). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.
ENROLMENT DATA
| Ìý | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | 1718 | 2025 | 2491 | 1799 | 1829 |
| Offers | 53 | 65 | 92 | 124 | 90 |
| New Enrolment | 35 | 34 | 49 | 53 | 40 |
| Total Enrolment | 112 | 123 | 123 | 109 | 115 |
Completion Rates & Times
Disclaimer
Research Supervisors
Supervision
Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor. Please follow the instructions provided by each program whether applicants should contact faculty members.
Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Master of Science in Computer Science (MSc)
This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.
-
Lemieux, Caroline (Programming languages and software engineering; help developers improve the correctness, security, and performance of software systems; test-input generation; specification mining; program synthesis)
-
Leyton-Brown, Kevin (Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Resource Allocation; Computer Science and Statistics; Auction theory; game theory; Machine Learning)
-
MacLean, Karon (Computer and information sciences; Information Systems; design of user interfaces; haptic interfaces; human-computer interaction; human-robot interaction)
-
McGrenere, Joanna (Computer and information sciences; computer science; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); human-computer interaction; interactive technologies for older users and people with cognitive disorders; personalized user interfaces; universal usability)
-
Mehta, Aastha (Software domains (including operating systems and software infrastructure); Information privacy; security & privacy; Systems security; networking; Operating systems; Data privacy; distributed systems)
-
Mitchell, Ian (safety critical systems, assistive technology (mobility), robotics, scientific computing, cyber-physical systems, Mathematical software, computational science and engineering, hybrid and cyber-physical systems, verification and validation, reproducible research, level set methods, robotic path, planning)
-
Munzner, Tamara (Human-centered computing; visualization; information visualization; visual analytics; data science)
-
Murphy, Gail (Programming languages and software engineering; Software Development; knowledge worker productivity; software design; software engineering; software evolution)
-
Ng, Raymond Tak-Yan (Data mining and analysis, health informatics, text summarization, text mining)
-
Pai, Dinesh (Robotics, computer graphics, medical imaging, neuroscience, sensorimotor computation )
-
Park, Mi Jung (Privacy-preserving machine learning algorithms, Compressing neural network models using Bayesian methods, Relationships between differential privacy and other emerging notions in machine learning)
-
Pasquier, Thomas (Development of more transparent computer systems, Whole-system provenance, Computational experiments reproducibility, Intrusion detection, privacy and compliance)
-
Pottinger, Rachel (Computer and information sciences; Computer Science and Statistics; data integration; data management; databases; metadata management)
-
Roth, Andrew (Bioinformatics; Cancer Evolution; Cancer omics data; computational statistics; Computational Biology; computational methods for studying clonal population structures and tumour evolution; Evolutionary cancer biology; genomics; Machine Learning; Methodological work in computational statistics; Molecular Oncology)
-
Schmidt, Mark (Machine learning; Numerical Optimizaiton; Probabilistic Graphical Models; Causality)
-
Seltzer, Margo (Computer Systems; Data Quality; Storage; Machine Learning & Systems; Systems for capturing and accessing data provenance; File Systems; databases; Transaction processing systems; Storage and analysis of graph-structured data; New architectures for parallelizing execution; Systems that apply technology to problems in healthcare.; Artificial Intelligence; Decision-making & Action; Software Practices; Networks, Systems and Security)
-
Sheffer, Alla (Computer graphics, shape modeling and geometry processing)
-
Shelhamer, Evan (Machine learning; Computer vision in artificial intelligence; Artificial intelligence (AI); Machine Learning; Computer Vision / Visual Recognition; Robustness and Adaptation; Self-Supervised / Unsupervised Learning; Applications to Remote Sensing and Sustainability)
-
Shepherd, Bruce (Natural sciences; Algorithms, Combinatorics, Polyhedra)
-
Shwartz, Vered (Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing)
-
Sigal, Leonid (Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Computer Science and Statistics; Parametric and Non-Parametric Inference; Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Semantic Recognition; Vision + Natural Language Processing; Visual Recognition and Understanding)
-
Summers, Alexander (Programming languages and software engineering; programming languages; software engineering)
-
Tang, Xin (Bioinformatics; Artificial intelligence (AI); Cell biology; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Mathematical biology; Genetics; Medical and biomedical engineering; Cancer; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Explainable and Interpretable Learning, Representation Learning, Knowledge Distillation; Biologically Informed Neural Network, Physically Informed Neural Network; Knowledge Distillation, Biological LLM, Biomedical Image Processing; Computational Cell Biology, Single-cell Biology, Multi-omics, Virtual Cell, Spatial Omics; Brain-Computer Interface, Neuroscience, Brain Mapping; Cancer Genomics, Development, Aging)
-
Van de Panne, Michiel (Computer Science and Statistics; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; Robotics and Automation; simulation of human movement; computer animation; Robotics; deep reinforcement learning; motor control; computer graphics)
Pages
Sample Thesis Submissions
Further Information
Specialization
Computer Science covers Bayesian statistics and applications, bioinformatics, computational intelligence (computational vision, automated reasoning, multi-agent systems, intelligent interfaces, and machine learning), computer communications, databases, distributed and parallel systems, empirical analysis of algorithms, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, hybrid systems, integrated systems design, networks, network security, networking and multimedia, numerical methods and geometry in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, robotics, scientific computation, software engineering, visualization, and theoretical aspects of computer science (computational complexity, computational geometry, analysis of complex graphs, and parallel processing).
ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà Calendar
Program Website
Faculty Overview
Academic Unit
Program Identifier
Classification
Program Enquiries
Contact the program
Departments/Programs may update graduate degree program details through the portal. To update contact details for application inquiries, please use this .
Considering ÑÇÖÞÌìÌà for your graduate studies?
Here, you can choose from more than 300 graduate degree program options and 2000+ research supervisors. You can even design your own program.