The 18 toughest computer science schools to get into in the UK

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Edinburgh University

Kim Traynor/CC 3.0

University of Edinburgh.

Computer science degrees are becoming increasingly popular as increasing numbers of students look to equip themselves with the skills required to build the next Snapchat or Spotify.

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But which computer science degree courses in the UK are the hardest to get onto?

Using the Complete University Guide's annual ranking of the UK's 127 universities, we took a look at the universities where getting onto a computer science course is the most challenging.

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The guide is one of the most reputable sources that students turn to when deciding which universities to apply to. It orders institutions based on a number of metrics, including student satisfaction, quality of research, graduate prospects, and entry standards, as well as ranking all of these metrics by subject.

The ranking of entry standards takes into account the average UCAS tariff score of new students entering universities and offers an accurate picture of how difficult it is to get onto courses universities across the UK.

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The Complete University Guide's website states: "Each student's examination results were converted to a numerical score (A level A=120, B=100 ... E=40, etc; Scottish Highers A=72, B=60, etc) and added up to give a score total. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) then calculated an average for all students at the university. The results were then adjusted to take account of the subject mix at the university."

While Cambridge makes the list, Oxford doesn't. That's because it doesn't offer a straight computer science course for undergraduates. See which other universities make the cut below.