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Graduate programs

We boast a small and active graduate program in computer science, with Masters and PhD-level programs offered in conjunction with the Faculty of Computer Science at UNB Fredericton. Computer science graduate students are able to work under supervision of faculty in our department at UNB Saint John.

Computer science graduate students are provided with office space and access to computing facilities. Many full-time graduate students receive financial support in the form of graduate teaching assistantship work or in the form of various research assistantships.

Advanced academic pathways

UNB offers two master's programs in Computer Science:

  1. the research-based MCS program
  2. the course-based MCSC program

Either can be taken on a full-time or a part-time basis.

Since our small Saint-John-based department offers few graduate courses in any given term, full-time studies in the MCSC program are not likely to work out for students. Part-time MCSC studies may be more feasible.

While full-time MCS students can complete their requirements entirely on this campus, a better approach (for those able) is to spend an initial term in Fredericton, completing three (or possibly four) graduate courses. Then the remaining requirements (courses and thesis work) can be finished in Saint John.

Sometimes Saint John MCS students will drive the 100 km to Fredericton several times a week in order to take some graduate course of especial interest, if it is offered in the fall. Sometimes, the campus has provided some financial support for this travel.

We have been encouraging CS professors on the Fredericton campus to consider using the excellent videoconference facilities that link our two campuses. Over the past years, a number of undergraduate and graduate courses have thus been made available at both sites.

Since the graduate program is a shared endeavour between the two main UNB campuses, see the UNB Fredericton Faculty of Computer Science for degree requirements and admission. 

Admission into the MCS degree on the Saint John campus requires a willing supervisor.


We supervise PhD students in CS, via the bi-campus graduate program. Given the small number of required graduate courses for the PhD, the limited offering of graduate courses offered here each term is much less of a concern than for masters students. As with masters students, most PhD students receive financial support in the form of graduate teaching assistantship work and various research assistantships.

For more details on the PhD program in CS, see the UNB Fredericton Faculty of Computer Science.

Past PhD students in CS from this campus have done their research in high-performance numerical computation, databases, networks, machine learning and software engineering.