Signal Processing and Communications MSc

Level: Postgraduate taught

Subject: Engineering

Year of entry: 2026

Study options

Mode of study

On campus

Full-time
  • MSc | 1 year | Start date: September 2026

Key facts

School

School of Engineering

College

College of Science and Engineering

Study location

King's Buildings campus

Accreditation

Not available

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About the degree programme

Signal processing and communications provide the theoretical foundations for any application which generates, processes, transmits or stores any type of information. They underpin many of the technological advancements which are currently driving rapid changes in industry, such as artificial intelligence and data science and the Internet of Things.

Our MSc programme in Signal Processing and Communications will enable you to contribute to the industries and research that help make our world smarter, healthier, and more sustainable.

You will be immersed in the most recent and exciting developments such as:

  • deep learning
  • computational sensing
  • 5G and 6G communication networks
  • numerical Bayesian methods and optimisation.

You will gain an understanding of the theoretical foundations of these subjects, as well as recent advanced topics and how they are applied to solve practical situations.

Through the MSc research project, you will demonstrate applications and delve deeper into the underpinning theory by investigating a solution to a real-world signal processing, machine or deep learning, or communication problem.

Our programme welcomes applications from both professionals and recent graduates in electronics and electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, and cognate fields.

United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

Based on our compulsory course material, this degree aligns with many of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the top one being SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Programme rankings

  • The School of Engineering is consistently ranked in the UK's top 10 universities for engineering (Times Higher Education rankings by subject 2025 and QS World University rankings by subject 2025)
  • The School of Engineering’s joint submission with Heriot-Watt University in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) was ranked 1st in Scotland and 3rd in the UK by Times Higher Education, based on the quality and breadth of our combined research
  • The University of Edinburgh is ranked 7th in the world and 2nd in the UK for sustainability, recognising our leadership in creating a more sustainable world (2025 QS World University Rankings)

Tuition fees

Tuition fees by award and duration

Tuition fees for full-time and part-time options are listed for one academic year.

Full-time

Graduate discount

If you are a University of Edinburgh graduate, you will be eligible for a 10% discount on your tuition fees for this programme. You may also be eligible if you were a visiting undergraduate student.

Find out how to receive your graduate discount

Deposit

If you receive an offer of admission you will need to pay a deposit to secure your place:

  • £1,500 (this contributes towards your tuition fees)

How and when to pay the deposit

Costs

Accommodation and living costs

You need to cover your accommodation and living costs for the duration of your programme.

We estimate that you might spend £1,167 to £2,330 per month if you are a single student.

Living costs include:

  • food
  • utility bills
  • travel, clothes, books and stationery
  • recreational costs (for example, TV subscriptions and social events)

Living costs

Accommodation costs depend on where you live while studying and the type of accommodation you choose.

University postgraduate accommodation options and costs

Funding opportunities

Funding for postgraduate study is different to undergraduate study, and many students need to combine funding sources to pay for their studies.

Most students use a combination of the following funding to pay their tuition fees and living costs:

  • borrowing money
    • taking out a loan
    • family support
  • personal savings
  • income from work
  • employer sponsorship
  • scholarships

Explore sources of funding for postgraduate study

Search for other funding opportunities

You can find scholarships, bursaries and other funding you might be eligible for on our Scholarships and Student Funding site.

Postgraduate funding opportunities

These entry requirements are for the 2026-27 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2027-28 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2026.

Qualifications

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, typically in electrical and/or electronics engineering with a specialisation in signal processing and/or communications. 
 
We also welcome applications from candidates who have studied related disciplines with strong mathematical backgrounds, such as those with previous degrees in mathematics, physics or deep/machine learning.
 
Entry into this programme is competitive. A typical offer will normally require a UK first class honours degree, or equivalent, and high grades in fundamentals, such as mathematics or probability, and relevant courses, such as signals and systems, statistics, communications, optimisation or machine learning. In addition, some of the courses and/or your final MSc project may require programming or learning a new programming language. Therefore, you will normally need to demonstrate practical knowledge and/or experience in a high level programming language.

International qualifications

To find international equivalent qualifications, select where you studied from the country or region list.

English language requirements

You must prove that your English language abilities are at a high enough level to study this degree programme.

This is the case for all applicants, including UK nationals.

You can meet our English language requirements with one of the following:

  • an English language test
  • a degree that was taught and assessed in English
  • certain professional qualifications

English language tests we accept

We accept any of the following English language tests, at the specified grade or higher:

  • IELTS Academic: total 6.5 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 92 with at least 20 in each component We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
  • C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 176 with at least 169 in each component.
  • Trinity ISE: ISE II with distinctions in all four components.
  • Oxford ELLT: total 7 with at least 6 in each component.
  • Oxford Test of English Advanced: total 145 with at least 135 in each component.
How old your English language tests can be
Tests no more than two years old

The following English language tests must be no more than two years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts, regardless of your nationality:

  • IELTS Academic
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition)
  • Trinity ISE
  • Oxford ELLT
  • Oxford Test of English Advanced
Tests no more than three and a half years old

All other English language tests must be no more than three and a half years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts, regardless of your nationality.   

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English-speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration.

UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English-speaking countries (non-MESC).

Approved universities in non-MESC

How old your degree can be

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old on the 1st of the month in which your programme starts.

This time limit does not apply to your degree if you are a national of a majority English-speaking country.

Find out more about our English language requirements

Find out about other English language qualifications we accept, including professional qualifications.

English language requirements

What you will study

The programme runs over 12 months. You will take two semesters of taught courses followed by a research project leading to the submission of your masters dissertation.

The courses correspond to 120 credits of taught material, plus 60 credits of the research project.

Research project and dissertation

After the completion of your taught courses, you will focus exclusively on a research project and dissertation over the summer, under the supervision of an academic member of staff. 

Examples of recent dissertation topics include:

  • Self-supervised learning for depth estimation
  • Data driven laser absorption spectroscopy tomography
  • Speech localisation using deep neural networks
  • New algorithms to assess nonlinear activity in complex systems
  • Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for optical wireless communication
  • High-resolution target detection in the sea clutter environments with semi-supervised learning
  • Underwater optical wireless communication systems with bit and power loading
  • Joint radar and communications waveform design and detection

Sustainability

Compulsory course material on this programme reflects the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, primarily SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Depending on the optional courses you choose to take, you will have the opportunity to explore others.

Further your knowledge of sustainability with our free training and resources

Social and civic responsibility is a key focus of the University.

Learn more about our focus on social and civic responsibility in our Climate Strategy

Find courses for this programme

Find out what courses you can study on this programme and how each of them are taught and assessed.

The courses on offer may change from year to year, but the course information will give you an idea of what to expect on this programme.

Full-time

We link to the latest information available. This may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

You will receive lectures, coursework and practical exercises to deepen your knowledge.

You will also have opportunities to:

  • learn from our internationally leading researchers whose research informs our teaching
  • hone your programming skills
  • participate in cutting-edge research projects supervised by world-leading academics at a top global institution
  • access dedicated high-performance computational resources to train machine and deep learning models as part of the MSc dissertation
  • engage with the Institute for Imaging, Data and Communications, often in collaboration with industrial partners.

Learning outcomes

The programme is designed to provide broad training in digital communications, machine and deep learning, and signal processing. We cover the theoretical foundations as well as advanced topics at the cutting-edge of current research.

On this programme, you will learn to:

  • identify fundamental principles of signal processing and communications
  • apply these principles in scientific and technological terms
  • consider current limits and future priorities for signal processing, machine learning and communications.

Support for your studies

You will have access to a range of support services if you need them throughout your degree.

We will assign you to a student adviser, and this should be the first person to contact if you need help. They can guide you to other University service teams depending on what support you need.  

How we support you

Career opportunities

The increasing demand for experts in signal processing and communications means you will be well-placed to develop a rewarding and exciting career in an industry such as:

  • machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence
  • data science
  • finance
  • internet of things
  • communications
  • radar
  • medical images and physiological monitoring
  • audio and speech recognition and production
  • robotics
  • anywhere else where signal processing and communications is applied, such as in smart grids or Earth observation.

Further study

After completing this programme, you may wish to consider applying for a PhD or other research programme.

Applying for research degrees

Moving on to a PhD (advice from the University's Careers Service)

Careers Service

Our Careers Service can help you to fully develop your potential and achieve your future goals. 

The Careers Service supports you not only while you are studying at the University, but also for up to two years after you finish your studies. 

With the Careers Service, you can: 

  • access digital resources to help you understand your skills and strengths
  • try different types of experiences and reflect on how and what you develop
  • get help finding work, including part-time jobs, vacation work, internships and graduate jobs
  • attend careers events and practice interviews
  • get information and advice to help you make informed decisions 

Visit the Careers Service website 

How to apply

You apply online for this programme. After you read the application guidance, select your preferred programme, then choose 'Start your application' to begin.

If you are considering applying to more than one programme, you should be aware that we cannot consider more than 3 applications from the same applicant.

When to apply

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines.

We strongly recommend you apply as early as possible. Applications may close earlier than the published deadlines if there is exceptionally high demand.

We may make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis. However, the majority of applications will be held until the advertised deadline.

We aim to make the majority of decisions within eight weeks of the selection deadline.

If we have not made you an offer by a specific selection deadline this means one of two things:

  • your application has been unsuccessful, in which case we will contact you to let you know
  • your application is still being considered, it will be carried forward for consideration in the next selection deadline, and we will be in touch once a decision is made

The final deadline may be extended if any places remain on the programme.

If the final deadline is extended, we encourage you to apply at least one month prior to entry so that we have enough time to process your application. If you are also applying for funding or will require a visa then we strongly recommend you apply as early as possible.

Selection deadlines

RoundApplication deadlineDecisions made or applications rolled to the next deadline
115 December1 March
231 March31 May
331 May31 July

When to submit your supporting documents

You must submit all supporting documents by the application deadline, or we will be unable to consider your application. Regardless of when you apply, you have 28 days from submitting your application to supply any supporting documents through the Application Hub, after which we will automatically reject your application.

Application fee

There is no fee to apply to this programme.

What you need to apply

As part of your online application, you will need to provide: 

You will also need to submit some or all of the following supporting documents:

When you start your application, you will be able to see the full list of documents you need to provide.

References

You must submit one reference with your application.

Apply

Select the award, duration and delivery mode you want to study. Then select the start date you want to apply for.

After you apply

Once you have applied for this programme, you will be able to track the progress of your application and accept or decline any offers.

Checking the status of your application

We will notify you by email once we have made a decision. Due to the large number of applications we receive, it might take a while until you hear from us.

Receiving our decision

What to do if you receive an offer:

Accommodation

We guarantee an offer of University accommodation for all new, single postgraduate taught students from outside the UK and new, single postgraduate research (typically PhD) students who:

  • apply for accommodation by 31 July in the year when you start your programme
  • accept an unconditional firm offer to study at the University by 31 July
  • study at the University for the whole of the academic year starting in September

University accommodation website

Accommodation guarantee criteria

We also offer accommodation options for couples and families.

Accommodation for couples and families

If you prefer to live elsewhere, we can offer you advice on finding accommodation in Edinburgh.

Accommodation information from the Edinburgh University Students' Association Advice Place

Societies and clubs

Our societies and sports clubs will help you develop your interests, meet like-minded people, find a new hobby or simply socialise.

Societies

Sport Clubs

The city of Edinburgh

Scotland's inspiring capital will form the background to your studies — a city with an irresistible blend of history, natural beauty and modern city life. 

Find out more about living in Edinburgh

Health and wellbeing support

You will have access to free health and wellbeing services throughout your time at university if you need them.

The support services we offer include: 

  • a student counselling service
  • a health centre (doctor's surgery)
  • support if you're living in University accommodation
  • dedicated help and support if you have a disability or need adjustments

Health and wellbeing support services 

Disability and Learning Support

General enquiries

Phone line is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm.

futurestudents@ed.ac.uk
Phone:+44 (0)131 650 5737

Academic contact

Dr Javier Escudero Rodriguez

Programme Director

Contact details

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