Computer Science Foundation Course Foundational knowledge for a successful start to your studies

The Computer Science Foundation Course provides prospective students who have not completed relevant vocational training with essential foundational knowledge in computer science. This course thus simplifies entry into a degree program and any relevant internship. This particularly applies to those with an academic baccalaureate.

General information

Whether the Computer Science Foundation Course is required for admission to your chosen degree program depends on a review of your application by the respective degree program director. Therefore, it is important that you apply for your chosen degree program early if you lack relevant vocational training! In some cases, prospective students may attend the initial modules of their chosen degree program while concurrently completing the Computer Science Foundation Course, allowing for provisional acceptance to the degree program until the the Computer Science Foundation Course has been successfully completed.

Course Content

The Computer Science Foundation Course covers the following three key topics:

  1. Operating Systems and Network Technology: Operating systems, BIOS, kernel, Linux, license models, device drivers, file systems, partitioning, boot manager, system administration, manual-pages, processes, absolute paths, Telnet, virtual machines, guest operating systems, TCP/IP-model, Ethernet.
  2. Programming with Scripts: Data types, data structures,  variables, operators, parameters, conditional statements, loops, comments, testing, Bash-shell, interpreter, shell scripts, debugging.
  3. Internet Technologies: HTML, CSS & PHP: Internet, WWW, browser, client, server, W3C, Wysiwyg-editor, HTML, element, tag, layout, links, controls, corporate identity, ergonomics, CGI, serverside scripts, dynamic websites, stateless protocols, session, cookies, requirements documents, ERM, implementation.

Mode of Delivery

The Computer Science Foundation Course course is a self-study course lasting between two and six months. It is possible to start the course at any time. The course requires 80-140 hours of study, of which a maximum of 18 lessons are supervised by an assigned coach.

All participants receive individual supervision for each key topic. This involves being assigned a coach who they can contact for support while they are working through each key topic and each assigned task. Furthermore, participants have the opportunity to benefit from two personalised one-to-one coaching sessions. 

Assessment takes place at the conclusion of each key topic, where the learning content is tested and completed tasks are evaluated.

Materials and Costs

Any necessary material for this self-study course will be handed out and introduced at the Kick-Off sessions. The required software will be provided, but participants are expected to have their own laptop computer. 

Participation in this Computer Science Foundation Course costs CHF 650.-, which includes all course materials, required software, access to the necessary support infrastructure at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, as well as a course certificate upon successful completion (passing all three key topics).