An Analysis of Currency of Computer Science Student Dissertation Topics in Higher Education

DOI: 10.5176/2251-2195_CSEIT15.43

Authors: Ijagbemi Kolawole Jehoshaphat, Nicholas Taylor and Hind Zantout

Abstract: Year 4 Honours students and MSc students in higher education in British institutions typically complete a moderate piece of work as part of their graduation requirements. In the field of Computer Science, this involves selecting a topic around which students build their dissertation. The field is fast evolving and student interests in the various topics change. This paper presents the results of an investigation that establishes how up-to-date topics of student dissertations were in the academic years 2010 through to 2013. First, dissertations were indexed to establish the topic of the dissertation. Then the topics were mapped on Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle. This paper presents summary statistics for the four year period and it reports on findings of an MSc student dissertation.

Keywords: higher education analytics; Gartner’s Hype Cycle;