Assessing the Consistency of Cyber Security Education

Cyber security is now a well-established topic in higher education contexts internationally. However, while numerous qualifications are available at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, it can be challenging for prospective students and employers to understand the topic coverage that sits under the degree title (and what aspects of cyber security a graduate will have been exposed to as a result). Following an initial illustration of how even the term ‘cyber security’ itself has varying interpretations, this paper evidences the challenge through an examination of the content of ten postgraduate degree programmes. All are titled ‘MSc Cyber Security’ and thus all are ostensibly addressing the same topic. However, a syllabus-level assessment reveals considerable differences in the programme composition (in terms of cyber and non-cyber topic coverage, and the technical and non-technical split within the cyber material). The technical content of the candidate programmes is compared in order to further demonstrate the difference in both the topic emphasis and the resulting student experience. The discussion then proceeds to consider how the actual content of programmes can be communicated and compared in a more informative manner, using mock-ups based on the earlier metrics to illustrate potential approaches.