Bachelor of Science in Computing Infrastructure and Cloud Systems
Every organisation that wants intelligent systems, digital services or reliable operations discovers the same binding constraint: it cannot build or run the infrastructure underneath them. Cloud architecture, systems engineering, networks and site reliability are the least glamorous and most ...
Employment thesis
What this programme is designed to produce
Forward publishes the destination of every programme before you enrol. If the thesis stops holding, the programme is reviewed and, where necessary, retired. Next review: 2032.
Roles
- Cloud engineer and architect
- site reliability engineer
- platform engineer
- DevOps engineer
- systems engineer
- network engineer
- infrastructure automation engineer
- database and storage engineer
- solutions architect
- technical founder
Employer types
- Regional and global technology firms
- banks
- insurers and mobile money operators
- telecommunications operators
- cloud providers and their partners
- government digital and statistical agencies
- health and agricultural technology firms
- managed service and hosting providers
- international research institutes
- the graduate's own venture, incubated through the Forward Venture Studio
Target outcomes we hold ourselves to
- This programme targets the upper decile of graduate technology compensation in East Africa and is explicitly designed for remote employment by international employers at international rates. Progression routes include the MSc in Data Engineering and Cloud Architecture and doctoral study.
Compulsory · The Forward Core
How the Core works →Every Forward programme, including this one, carries the same five cross-cutting requirements. They are graded, not optional.
- AI Fluency
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Ethics and African Context
- Human-Advantage Skills
- Enterprise
Includes 12 months paid work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4. Read the co-op commitment
Am I eligible?
Check yourself against the published requirements
7 questions written specifically for Bachelor of Science in Computing Infrastructure and Cloud Systems. Every answer is checked against a requirement Forward has published, and the result tells you which page that requirement comes from. Indicative only, the admissions office decides on your full file.
What is the highest qualification you hold or are completing?
Curriculum structure
The same degree, in both pathways
Every Forward programme is published in both pathways: Path One, the term plan of two six-month terms, and Path Two, the block sequence of twelve four-week blocks. Same competencies, same assessments, same award. Toggle to see this programme in each.
Path One term plan shown
Path One · The Term Model
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 101 | AI Fluency I: How Intelligent Systems Work Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BCIC 110 | Programming and Computational Thinking Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 111 | Networks and Protocols Objective | 4 | 3-2-0 |
| BCIC 112 | Operating Systems and Systems Programming Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BCIC 113 | Foundations of Data and Databases Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 102 | Quantitative Reasoning and Evidence Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BCIC 130 | Cloud Fundamentals and Virtualisation Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 131 | Linux and Systems Administration Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| BCIC 132 | Infrastructure as Code and Configuration Objective | 4 | 3-2-0 |
| BCIC 133 | Distributed Systems Principles Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| COP 190 | Workplace Immersion (4 weeks, recessterm) Performance | 0 | 0-0-0 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 201 | Ethics, Society and the African Context Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BCIC 210 | Container Orchestration and Platforms Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 211 | Networking at Scale and Software Defined Networks Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| BCIC 212 | Databases at Scale and Storage Engineering Performance | 4 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 213 | Site Reliability Engineering I Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 202 | Human Advantage: Argument, Writing and Teams Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 290 | Co-operative Education Placement I (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BCIC 230 | Cloud Architecture and Multi Cloud Design Performance | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| BCIC 231 | Continuous Delivery and Release Engineering Both | 2 | 1-0-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 301 | AI Fluency II: Building, Evaluating and Auditing Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| BCIC 310 | Observability, Monitoring and Incident Response Performance | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| BCIC 311 | Infrastructure Security and Zero Trust Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 312 | Data Pipelines and Streaming Infrastructure Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 313 | Cost Engineering and Capacity Planning Both | 2 | 1-0-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 302 | Enterprise, Employability and Financial Literacy Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| COP 390 | Co-operative Education Placement II (6 months) Performance | 10 | 0-0-0 |
| BCIC 330 | Site Reliability Engineering II Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 331 | Edge and Constrained Environment Computing Both | 3 | 1-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 401 | AI Fluency III: Domain Deployment, Governance and Assurance Both | 3 | 1-2-0 |
| BCIC 410 | Platform Engineering and Developer Experience Performance | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| BCIC 411 | AI Infrastructure and Accelerated Computing Performance | 5 | 2-2-4 |
| BCIC 412 | Advanced Distributed Systems Operations Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| BCIC 413 | Infrastructure Specialisation Elective I Objective | 4 | 3-2-0 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 402 | Capability Portfolio and Day One Preparation Both | 3 | 1-2-0 |
| BCIC 430 | Infrastructure Capstone: Build and Operate a Real Platform Performance | 9 | 0-2-16 |
| BCIC 431 | Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Engineering Both | 4 | 2-2-2 |
| BCIC 432 | Infrastructure Specialisation Elective II Objective | 3 | 2-2-0 |
| BCIC 433 | Professional Practice and Technical Leadership Objective | 3 | 2-2-0 |
Total credit units: 176
Curriculum source
Forward University Curriculum Compendium
Assessment
Assessment follows Part E without variation. Across the programme the aggregate weighting is 35 per cent continuous assessment and built artefacts, 25 per cent authentic performance including practical examination and oral defence, 30 per cent external practitioner assessment in the final year, and not more than 40 per cent written examination in any single course. The capstone is client verified and the Day One Assessment contributes 5 per cent of the final year mark. Assessment principles. Assessment is authentic, criterion referenced and, for every capability claim above Level 2, verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer. There is no compensation between competencies: a student must master each one, and a marginal performance in one cannot be offset by strength in another. Feedback is returned quickly, within seven days of a block closing in the Block Sequence, so that it can inform the next unit. A student who does not yet meet the standard is given a further, structured attempt under Part E rather than being carried forward, which protects the value of the award while supporting progression. Reasonable adjustments for disability are made under Part D without altering the competency standard.
Work-integrated learning
Students complete COP 190 Workplace Immersion in the Year 1 recess term, COP 290 Co-operative Education Placement I (six months, paid, assessed) and COP 390 Co-operative Education Placement II (six months, paid, assessed), totalling not fewer than twelve months. Placement hosts are contracted by the Co-operative Education Office. The employer completes a structured capability assessment carrying 40 to 50 per cent of the placement mark and signs the capability claims that enter the Capability Passport. Online students are placed with accredited hosts in their own city or country under remote academic supervision, or have their existing employment accredited as the placement site under Part D4.
Your week at Forward
A typical week on Bachelor of Science in Computing Infrastructure and Cloud Systems
Path One, the Term Model: your own pace across a six-month term, one live session a week, short flexible lessons, and assessment on demand.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Curriculum explorer
Drill into the degree, step by step
Choose a study path, then a year, then a term or block, then a course. Credit totals add up as you go, and every course shows what comes before it and what it unlocks.
Step 1, choose a year
Step 2, choose a term
TERM 1 (SIX MONTHS) | FORMERLY YEAR 1, SEMESTER 1 | YEAR 1 | 22
Year 1 · this step is worth 22 CU
Cumulative
22
Programme total
176
22 CU of 176 CU completed by the end of this step (13%)
Step 3, choose a course
Pick a course to see the detail
Credits, assessment, prerequisites and what each course unlocks later.
The twelve Forward capabilities
What this programme develops in you
Every Forward degree develops the same twelve cross-cutting capabilities. The profile below is the level this programme is designed to develop and verify by graduation, on the four-level scale in Part B2 of the Curriculum Compendium. Every claim above Level 2 is verified by someone other than the teaching lecturer.
- C1Intelligent Systems Fluency CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C2Quantitative and Evidential ReasoningLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C3Ethical and Contextual JudgementLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C4Communication and PersuasionLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C5Disciplinary Mastery CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C6Technical Production and Craft CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C7Problem Framing and Systems Thinking CriticalLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C8Collaboration and Multidisciplinary TeamingLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C9Enterprise, Value and Commercial LiteracyLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C10Professional Conduct and Workplace PerformanceLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C11Learning to Learn and Adaptive CapacityLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C12Stewardship and Public ContributionLevel 3 of 4, Independent
Critical capabilities for this programme: Intelligent Systems Fluency · Disciplinary Mastery · Technical Production and Craft · Problem Framing and Systems Thinking. A graduate cannot pass out of this programme below the stated level on any capability marked critical.
Programme Learning Outcomes
What you will be able to do
Each outcome is assessed, and each is tagged with the Forward capabilities it is verified against.
- PLO 1Design a cloud architecture for a stated workload and justify it against cost, reliability, security and the alternative of not using cloud.
- PLO 2Build and operate production infrastructure as code, with version control, testing, review and reproducible deployment.
- PLO 3Engineer for reliability: instrument a system, define service level objectives, and respond to incidents with measured recovery.
- PLO 4Design, operate and tune networks and distributed systems that survive African connectivity and grid conditions.
- PLO 5Operate data infrastructure at scale: databases, storage, pipelines and their backup and recovery.
- PLO 6Secure infrastructure to a defensible baseline: identity, configuration, secrets and supply chain.
- PLO 7Model and control the cost of a running system and defend the trade offs to a budget holder.
- PLO 8Automate operations and integrate AI assistance while retaining human control of production changes.
- PLO 9Work as the infrastructure member of a delivery team, translating between the platform and the people who build on it.
- PLO 10Acquire and demonstrate a new infrastructure capability without formal instruction, evidenced in the Capability Passport.
Why this programme exists
Every organisation that wants intelligent systems, digital services or reliable operations discovers the same binding constraint: it cannot build or run the infrastructure underneath them. Cloud architecture, systems engineering, networks and site reliability are the least glamorous and most decisive layer of the digital economy, they are among the most remote accessible and highly paid roles in technology, and they are almost entirely untaught as a coherent degree in the region. This programme builds the engineer who designs, automates and operates the platform everyone else stands on. From Year 1 the student runs real systems under real load, and every year terminates in infrastructure that stays up because the student made it so.
Admission requirements
Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education with two principal passes including Mathematics, and at least a subsidiary pass in Physics, Computer Studies, Economics or another quantitative subject; plus Uganda Certificate of Education with five passes including Mathematics and English. Applicants additionally sit a structured quantitative and problem framing task at admission, scored against Capabilities C2 and C7. Equivalent international qualifications are assessed against this profile. All applicants must demonstrate competence in English, the language of instruction, through their qualifications or an approved proficiency test under Part A. International and non standard qualifications are assessed for equivalence against the profile above under the Credential Portability provisions, so that a suitably prepared applicant may enter from anywhere in the world. Selection considers the whole application, including the structured admission task, and is conducted without discrimination under the University's admissions policy. Alternative pathways: Foundation Year, diploma entry with advanced standing, mature age entry and recognition of prior learning, all governed by Part A5 and Part G. Online applicants additionally complete the compulsory Digital Readiness orientation under Part D6.
AI & Computing
Other open programmes in this School
Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence and big data is the fastest growing skill category in the world, two thirds of employers intend to hire specifically for it, and the measured wage premium for demonstrable AI capability now exceeds sixty per cent of ...
View programme BSc (Hons)Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Analytics
Every institution in Uganda now holds more data than it can interpret, and almost none of them can convert it into a decision. The gap is not modelling talent; it is the far scarcer ability to move from a messy administrative dataset to a d...
View programme BSc (Hons)Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering with Intelligent Systems
The largest addressable domestic technology market in Uganda is software, and the largest single complaint from employers is that graduates can pass an algorithms examination but have never shipped anything to a user, never operated a syste...
View programme BSc (Hons)Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Digital Trust
Uganda is digitising public services, payments and identity faster than it is producing people qualified to defend them, and the shortage is acute at exactly the level — hands on defensive operations — where the region's degree programmes a...
View programme BSc (Hons)Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with Advanced and Quantum Computing
Every serious technology economy needs a small number of people who understand computation deeply enough to build the layer everyone else stands on: compilers, runtimes, schedulers, numerical kernels, cryptographic primitives and, increasin...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Machine Learning and Foundation Models
A research intensive degree for the small number of people who will build, adapt and evaluate frontier-class models on and for the continent. It exists because Africa is acquiring accelerated computing faster than it is acquiring the people...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Applied Artificial Intelligence
A practitioner conversion degree for working professionals — clinicians, bankers, engineers, agronomists, civil servants, teachers, lawyers — who need to build and govern intelligent systems in their own sector rather than become research s...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Data Engineering and Cloud Architecture
Every organisation that wants intelligent systems discovers first that it cannot get to its own data. Data engineering is the least glamorous and most binding constraint on African AI adoption, and it is almost entirely untaught at postgrad...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics
Uganda's critical financial, identity and public service infrastructure is now digital, and the national capacity to investigate, attribute and defend against attacks on it is thin. This programme builds senior defenders, investigators and ...
View programme PhDDoctor of Philosophy in Artificial Intelligence
Africa cannot import its way to research capacity. This doctorate is designed to produce researchers who will stay, supervise, and build institutions, and it therefore carries two requirements unusual in the region: every candidate must pub...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Human-Centred AI Systems
Most intelligent systems fail not because the model was wrong but because the system ignored the people who had to use it, trust it or live with its decisions. Human centred design, human computer interaction, and the study of how people and intelligent systems actually work together have become ...
View programme BSc (Hons)Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity Operations and Infrastructure Defence
Uganda is digitising public services, payments and identity faster than it is producing people who can defend the infrastructure underneath them, and the shortage is most acute not in policy but in hands on defensive operations: the engineers who harden a network, run a security operations centre, ...
View programme MScMaster of Science in Applied Machine Learning
There is a large and growing population of technically capable professionals in the region who can program and reason quantitatively but who cannot yet build, evaluate and deploy machine learning systems to a professional standard. They do not need a research degree; they need a rigorous, build ...
View programme