I'm not sure I'd agree that CS has a low profile within the UK, I think it's had a strong history over the past 70 years or so. And now there seems to be a buzz regarding bringing coding into classrooms at a lower age that will hopefully will boost numbers in the future.

I guess the low number may be as it is taught in a traditional manner with a focus on the theoretical fundamentals rather than on software engineering (although the dept does offer a post-grad part-time Software Engineering course I TA'd for that seemed pretty cool.)

Anyway, this is certainly good news for the department (and congrats to Max too!).