The MSc Study Program Information Security and Digital Forensics is first of hopefully many study programs available in English language as part of the internationalization policy of Zagreb University of Applied Sciences for the period between 2014 and 2025.
With an average number of 3,500 students, it is the largest University of Applied Sciences in Croatia, however, there had been no programs available in English. At the same time, in the academic year 2018/2019, the University had 33 students from foreign countries through ERASMUS program, which is slightly above the Croatian average (0,65% vs 0,54%).
The long-term strategy for development of Zagreb University of Applied Sciences states a planned increase in the number of foreign students – EU and non-EU citizens alike. The aim for internationalization of the curriculum and lesson plans, plans of applied research, highly professional services and student experience all align perfectly with the Strategy of education, science and technology from 2014.
The increase in mobility can only be reached if Croatian higher education institutions increase their offer of courses, modules and entire study programs in English or other languages. MSc Study Program Information Security and Digital Forensics was chosen as the most unique program with no similar programs found in the Republic of Croatia or the nearby region.
„There is a strong education dimension to cyber security. Effective cybersecurity relies heavily on the skills of the people concerned. But the cybersecurity skills gap for professionals working in the private sector in Europe is predicted to be 350,000 by 2022. 51 Cybersecurity education should be developed at all levels, starting from regular training of a cyber workforce, additional cybersecurity training for all ICT specialists, and new specific cybersecurity curricula. “ (source: isc2.org)
The project was planned with project partners Diverto d.o.o. and Sedam IT d.o.o., expert companies from the private sector in the field of Information Security. The project is funded by the Ministry of Science and Education through European Social Fund (ESF) grants and will see its first semester take place in the fall of 2020. The project was granted 1,787,319.00 HRK for the implementation process from September 2018 to August 2021. As a result, there would be a new website in English, promotion of the new study programme, strengthening of the teaching staff language skills and developing and translating teacher and student materials to English for the first and second semester of 2020/2021.
For more information about the project feel free to contact M.Sc. Marinko Žagar (marinko.zagar@tvz.hr).
For more information about the programme go here.