External examiner’s report for

M.Sc. Examination in Mathematics and

Foundations of Computer Science
2014-2015
Martı́n Escardó
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham

The examiners’ meetings were superbly conducted by Profs. Victor Flynn

and Jonathan Barret. The external examiners, Prof. John Talbot and myself,
were made fully aware of the regulations and the particular circumstances of the
examinations, and it was a pleasure to work together in order to both assure
the quality of the procedure and resolve any problematic issues. The transition
from previous examiners, Prof. Bob Coecke (internal) and Prof. Alex Wilkie
(external), also worked rather smoothly.
The moderation of the marks worked impeccably in all cases, with no espe-
cially difficult cases this time. I was very pleased with the project presentations
and the overall quality of the projects and the presentations was even higher
than last year, with a more projects containing elements of novel work, suitable
for publication. (But this year I only attended the computer science presen-
tations, due to time constraints in the examination, given the large number of
presentation, which is a sign of success of the degree.)
I repeat the statement of my previous report that this is an excellent M.Sc.
degree, with many commendable aspects to it, not least its interdisciplinary
character, combining Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science in a mean-
ingful way. The courses offered are deep, relevant, and at the cutting-edge of
research. It is an excellent path to doctoral study, and, indeed, a good pro-
portion of the students were offered PhD studentships at renowned institutions
after completion.
I made a number of suggestions in my previous report, all of which were
implemented. There is only one aspect that remains to be improved in my
view:
Uniform level of difficulty. The level of difficulty of the different papers is
not uniform, and this is confirmed by the final results gathered in the examiners’
meetings.
Moreover, it seems that some subjects tend to produce mini-projects with
significantly higher marks than the others. However, this remark has to be

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taken with caution, because this is a small sample of only two years and not too
many students. Additionally, there may be good reasons for this, for instance
that some topics in theoretical computer science are relatively new, and hence
with far more unexplored territory, giving ample opportunity for the students
to conduct interesting explorations, potentially with novel, interesting findings.
Hence I do not propose any procedural change, but only watching closely this
phenomenon, to make sure the subjects are all equally difficult.
I also repeat from my previous report that this degree and its examination
procedures are of international, top quality standards. It has been a pleasure
to work with the internal and external examiners, and I am pleased by their
commitment to excellence and smooth running of the examination procedures.

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