Coursera to offer Masters Degree in Data Science

Coursera announced that it is teaming up with multiple universities, including Imperial College London, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan and University of London, to launch online Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree programs.

Coursera's Masters of Computer Science in Data Science with Illinois
Coursera’s Masters of Computer Science in Data Science

Two Master’s Degree in Data Science from Coursera

Two of the degrees offered by Coursera are on Data Science. One is a Master of Computer Science in Data Science with UIUC. It will be available from Fall 2018. And the second degree is from University of Michigan’s Master of Applied Data Science. This course will be available from Fall 2019.

At the first glance the Master’s degree in Data Science from UIUC is strongly CS centric, while there is not much information available on U. Michigan’s Data Science degree.

Coursera & UIUC Master of Computer Science in Data Science

The Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) is completely online degree program covering both computational and statistical knowledge useful to gain insights from big data. The key areas that the Data Science Master degree will focus on are Machine Learning, Data Visualization, Cloud Computing, and Data Mining. See the full curriculum here. To complete the Masters Degree, one needs 32 credit hours from 25 courses. And typical work load expected is 15 – 20 hours per week to complete the degree in 18 – 36 months. And now to the big question

How much will the Masters Degree will cost?

Tuition for the MCS-DS is $600 per credit hour, for a total of $19,200 for the complete 32 credit hour degree. In addition to this there will be additional fees from Coursera, ProctorU, and, course dependent Amazon Web Services cost, totalling around $22,000.

University of Michigan’s Master of Applied Data Science.

Without giving much details about the courses and requirements, Coursera says that the U. Michigan’s Applied Data Science Program is

An applied, skills-based program in data science developed by world-class faculty at the University of Michigan.

Gain insight into data and develop hands-on skills in programming, statistics, data analysis, information visualization, and machine learning. The Master of Applied Data Science degree program provides project-based education for learners from a broad range of backgrounds including the sciences, social sciences, or professional schools. This program will not merely complement previous academic study, it will teach skills to existing professionals who wish to capitalize on the data revolution happening in the world today.

And this degree is also expected cost around $22,000.

Visit https://www.coursera.org/degrees/masters-in-computer-data-science to learn more about Courera’s Master of Computer Science in Data Science.