[LINK] Master of Cyber Security

[Tom Worthington]

On 9/3/19 7:51 pm, Roger Clarke wrote:

> On 9/3/19 7:12 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:
>> ... Academic Centre Of Cyber Security Excellence. 
>> https://studyonline.ecu.edu.au/ppc/master-cyber-security

The ANU Master of Cyber Security includes some law, national security 
policy, and statecraft, as well as the more technical defensive and 
offensive cyber operations topics:
https://programsandcourses.anu.edu.au/program/MCSRM#program-requirements

ANU has staff from the Defense Department in residence. There is also a 
ANU cyber security "reading group" each week, with pizza. The social 
side of telecommunications security, which often gets overlooked by 
technical people, is touched on in Dermot Turing's new book "X, Y & Z: 
The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken" 
https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/259907389

> (1)  The workload is at best marginally more than half of what Grad 
> Certs, Grad Dips and Masters degrees required in the 1970s ...

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) sets the "volume of 
learning" for a Masters Degree (Coursework) at between one and two 
years, depending on previous study. The shortest is one year after a 
relevant honors degree, and 1.5 years following a relevant bachelor degree:
https://www.aqf.edu.au/sites/aqf/files/aqf-2nd-edition-january-2013.pdf

> (2)  The entry qualifications are very loose:  a Bachelor degree in 
> any discipline ...

Under the AQF, students with degrees in unrelated disciplines are 
expected to study an extra six months, for two years in total.

> ... people who squeeze in because of the lax pre-requisites are 
> likely to come out of it with pretty vague impressions ...

However they enter, students have to demonstrate the required knowledge 
and skills to graduate. Students doing masters programs can be shocked 
at the amount of study they have to do. It can be difficult to get the 
student to understand that unless they do the required work, they will 
not graduate. Even more difficult is to sit down with them, and explain 
they have not passed.

I have been looking at how to help masters students get through their 
studies, alongside work and family commitments. I will be speaking about 
this in the new ANU Marie Reay Teaching Centre, 15 March:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/blend-flip-and-back-to-the-classroom-tickets-57364873882


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP http://www.tomw.net.au +61(0)419496150
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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University
https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington