University of Cambridge

Cambridge has a strong claim to being where academic computing began. Its Computer Laboratory, now the Department of Computer Science and Technology, built EDSAC, one of the first practical stored-program computers, which ran in 1949 under Maurice Wilkes. A few years later, in 1953, Cambridge began teaching what is generally recognised as the world’s first taught course in computing.

Today the department sits among the leading computer science departments in the United Kingdom and is consistently placed near the top of the global rankings. Its research spans systems, security, machine learning, programming languages, and the history and theory that Cambridge helped establish.

Undergraduates study within the collegiate system, which combines department lectures with small-group teaching in the colleges. As at Oxford, places are highly competitive and applicants sit an admissions assessment.