Master 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...
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: 2031.
Roles
- AI product owner
- applied AI lead
- head of analytics
- digital transformation lead
- sector AI specialist
- consultant
- senior civil servant with technical portfolio.
Employer types
- Banks, insurers and telecommunications operators
- ministries, agencies and local government
- hospitals and health systems
- agricultural and manufacturing firms
- NGOs and development agencies
- and consultancies.
Target outcomes we hold ourselves to
- Designed for immediate in role advancement rather than career change, with the candidate's own employer typically the sponsor and the first beneficiary.
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
Am I eligible?
Check yourself against the published requirements
7 questions written specifically for Master of Science in Applied Artificial Intelligence. 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?
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 501 | Applied Intelligence for Professionals Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| FDC 502 | Research Evidence and Method Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| AIC 510 | Foundations of Machine Learning for Practitioners Performance | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| AIC 511 | Data for Decisions: Quality, Governance and Bias Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| AIC 512 | Sector Applications of Artificial Intelligence Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDC 503 | Governance, Ethics and Leadership of Intelligent Systems Both | 4 | 2-2-0 |
| AIC 520 | Building and Deploying Applied AI Performanc | 6 | 3-2-4 |
| AIC 521 | AI Strategy, Value and Business Case Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| AIC 522 | Procurement, Assurance and Audit of Intelligent Systems Both | 5 | 3-2-2 |
| Code | Course | CU | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIC 530 | Applied Capstone: Intelligent System in the Candidate's Own Organisation Performance | 16 | 0-2-30 |
Total credit units: 60
Curriculum source
Forward University Curriculum Compendium
Assessment
Coursework + project + integrated exam
Work-integrated learning
12 months paid co-operative education
Your week at Forward
A typical week on Master of Science in Applied Artificial Intelligence
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 SEMESTER 1
Year 1 · this step is worth 24 CU
Cumulative
24
Programme total
60
24 CU of 60 CU completed by the end of this step (40%)
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 4 of 4, Leading
- C3Ethical and Contextual JudgementLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C4Communication and PersuasionLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C5Disciplinary MasteryLevel 4 of 4, Leading
- C6Technical Production and CraftLevel 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 Literacy CriticalLevel 3 of 4, Independent
- C10Professional Conduct and Workplace Performance CriticalLevel 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 · Problem Framing and Systems Thinking · Enterprise, Value and Commercial Literacy · Professional Conduct and Workplace Performance. 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 1Identify where in their own organisation an intelligent system would and would not create value, and defend the judgement financially.
- PLO 2Build and evaluate a working applied AI solution for a real organisational problem.
- PLO 3Specify, procure, govern and audit intelligent systems supplied by third parties.
- PLO 4Lead the organisational change that adoption requires including workforce consequences.
- PLO 5Apply the relevant legal, regulatory and ethical framework in their sector.
- PLO 6Communicate technical risk and opportunity to a board.
Why this programme exists
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 scientists. It is the University's principal early revenue programme and its principal instrument of national AI literacy at senior level, and it is designed to be taken while employed, entirely online if necessary, with every assessment set in the candidate's own organisation.
Admission requirements
A Bachelor's degree of at least Second Class Lower Division in any discipline, plus at least two years of relevant professional experience. Candidates without a computing background complete a compulsory 4 CU bridging module in programming and data handling before Semester 1. 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 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