Computer programming in the UK undergraduate mathematics curriculum

abstract

This paper reports a study which investigated the extent to which undergraduate mathematics students in the United Kingdom are currently taught to programme a computer as a core part of their mathematics degree programme. We undertook an online survey, with significant follow-up correspondence, to gather data on current curricula and received replies from 46 (63%) of the departments who teach a BSc mathematics degree. We found that 78% of BSc degree courses in mathematics included computer programming in a compulsory module but 11% of mathematics degree programmes do not teach programming to all their undergraduate mathematics students. In 2016, programming is most commonly taught to undergraduate mathematics students through imperative languages, notably MATLAB, using numerical analysis as the underlying (or parallel) mathematical subject matter. Statistics is a very popular choice in optional courses, using the package R. Computer algebra systems appear to be significantly less popular for compulsory first-year courses than a decade ago, and there was no mention of logic programming, functional programming or automatic theorem proving software. The modal form of assessment of computing modules is entirely by coursework (i.e. no examination).

KEYWORDS:

• Programming and programming languages
• country-specific developments
• undergraduate mathematics

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the colleagues for the time they gave us in responding to the initial survey and follow-up requests for further information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Responsibility for school education in the United Kingdom is devolved to the four regional administrations in England (the largest), Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

2. www.hesa.ac.uk (retrieved 21 June 2016), Table 4: HE student enrolments by level of study, subject area, mode of study and sex, from 2010/11 to 2014/15. Statistical First Release 224.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by the Centre for Science Education at the University of Edinburgh.