Case Study: Heriot-Watt University improves coding feedback and student outcomes with GitLab

How GitLab automates course work, enhances coding feedback, advances software quality, and scales for success

Heriot-Watt University’s Computer Science department needed a better way to support coding education across multiple campuses while improving formative feedback, automating parts of assignment review, and giving students practical experience with version control and modern development workflows. To address this, the university turned to GitLab SaaS Ultimate.

With GitLab, Heriot-Watt University implemented automated testing, threaded discussions, self-hosted access, and course-wide workflow automation to streamline teaching and feedback. The results included a 10x improvement in marking times, 24,290 project forks by 1,796 users, and GitLab adoption across 15 coding-based courses; student satisfaction also improved, with over 86% of surveyed students saying they enjoyed using GitLab.

Heriot-Watt University

Manuel Maarek

Computer Science Lecturer