MSc in Natural Language Processing
About This Programme
A two-year research MSc in Natural Language Processing spanning language understanding, speech and large language models.
Course Highlights
- Not automatically funded: MBZUAI classes M.Sc. students as fee-paying by default, with merit-based funding considered at admission and otherwise secured through a faculty-sponsored assistantship or a government scholarship.
- Research on large language models, speech, multilinguality and vision-language.
- Access to computing labs with nearly 1,000 Nvidia DGZ-1/2 GPU servers.
- One-year Master's research thesis.
What You'll Study
A full-time, English-language MSc on the Masdar City campus with core NLP and AI courses, electives, research methods, an internship and a one-year thesis. MBZUAI classes M.Sc. students as fee-paying by default; merit-based funding is considered at admission, and is otherwise secured through a faculty-sponsored assistantship or an approved government scholarship.
Core courses
Core: 6 courses, 16 credit hours, taken by every student.
- Machine Learning with Python (AI7101)2 credits
- Introduction to Deep Learning (AI7102)2 credits
- Probabilistic and Statistical Inference (ML7101)2 credits
- Mathematical Foundations for AI (MTH7101)2 credits
- Natural Language Processing (NLP701)4 credits
- Advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP702)4 credits
Research methods, internship and thesis
- Introduction to Research Methods (RES799)2 credits
- Master of Science Internship (up to six weeks) (INT799)2 credits
- Natural Language Processing Master's Research Thesis (NLP799)8 credits
Elective courses
Students select two elective courses totalling 8 credit hours.
Published elective list
- Introduction to Single Cell Biology and Bioinformatics (CBIO7101)4 credits
- Algorithms and Data Structures (CS7101)4 credits
- Foundations of AI System Design (CS7201)4 credits
- Computer and Network Security (CS7602)4 credits
- Human and Computer Vision (CV701)4 credits
- Geometry for Computer Vision (CV702)4 credits
- Visual Object Recognition and Detection (CV703)4 credits
- Digital Twins (CV707)4 credits
- Selected Topics in Computer Vision (CV7501)2 credits
- Deep Learning for Visual Computing (CV7502)4 credits
- Data Mining (DS701)4 credits
- Big Data Processing (DS702)4 credits
- Information Retrieval (DS703)4 credits
- Entrepreneurship in Action (ENT799)2 credits
- Medical Imaging: Physics and Analysis (HC701)4 credits
- Machine Learning (ML701)4 credits
- Advanced Machine Learning (ML702)4 credits
- Smart City Services and Applications (ML707)4 credits
- Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (ML708)4 credits
- IoT, Smart Systems, Services and Applications (ML709)4 credits
- Parallel and Distributed Machine Learning Systems (ML710)4 credits
- Intermediate Music AI (ML711)4 credits
- Optimization (MTH702)4 credits
- Speech Processing (NLP703)4 credits
- Introduction to Robotics (ROB701)4 credits
Entry Requirements
Screening exam and technical interview; two references; GRE optional.
Careers
Graduates work on language technology, LLMs and speech across industry and research, or continue to a PhD.
Accreditation & Professional Recognition
Accredited by the UAE Commission for Academic Accreditation (status Active on the CAA register).
Programme Details
Award
Master of Science (MSc) in Natural Language Processing
Start Date
Annual Fall intake (August)
Typical Offer
STEM bachelor's, CGPA 3.0/4.0; IELTS 6.5 / TOEFL 90
Duration
2 years
Qualification
Masters
Subject Area
Natural Language Processing
Study Pattern
Full time
Delivery Format
In person