Master of Information and Communication Technology La Trobe University

La Trobe's Master of Information and Communication Technology has been carefully designed by industry experts and prepares you for a successful career in the fast-growing information and communication technology (ICT) industry.

Dive straight into the booming world of ICT. Start by honing your fundamental skills in network engineering, programming, web and network security and entrepreneurship in information technology. Then, focus on more specialised topics like campus network design, wireless networking engineering and project management.

Build out your expertise with a mix of electives, from artificial intelligence to virtual reality to Internet of Things programming. Our supportive staff can help you tailor your degree to your career goals.

Put your new knowledge into practice. You'll have the option of applying your skills to either an industry project – alongside one of our industry partners – or a research project in your final year. Get an edge with a CISCO CCNA certification as part of your studies (required for many networking jobs around the world) and complete other industry certifications through our industry partnerships.

From day one you'll have access to our on-campus specialist labs, where you can practise your networking and software development skills using industry-standard facilities.

Throughout your degree, you'll develop skills in entrepreneurship, professional and ethical practices and project management – transferable skills you can apply to roles in any industry.

Key features

• Our Master of Information and Communication Technology offers students the unique opportunity to obtain a CISCO CCNA certification.*
• Undertake an industry-based capstone project or an applied research project.
• Access our state-of-the-art CISCO labs, with a total of 120 switches, 120 routers, 30 adaptive security appliances and 30 wireless LAN controllers.
• You can complete your study in two years (standard duration) or fast-track it in 18 months (accelerated option).

*May be conditional on subject choice. Seek advice upon enrolment.

You'll learn:

• Programming
  Develop your skills in programming languages and gain insight into areas such as compiler and pre-processor, functions and programming structures, arrays, structures, input/output and the UNIX interface.
• CISCO gears
  Learn to customise CISCO gears like routers, switches, firewalls and wireless controllers. Use them to provide scalable solutions for corporate communications infrastructure.
• Project management
  Manage projects, communicate effectively and support large teams.
• Entrepreneurship
  Equip yourself with the fundamentals of innovation, professionalism and ethical practices, and gain a competitive edge in the modern business environment.
• Network system design
  Understand how to design and develop large corporate networks, including last-mile wireless segment and network capacity planning. Learn how to secure networks using innovative firewalls and ICT policies.

The qualification awarded on graduation is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) as Level 9 - Masters Degree.

ICT specialists are in high demand across the technology, communications, education, finance, government, healthcare and energy sectors.

Possible roles include:

• Network Engineer
  Design and use equipment for voice and data. Implement new processes, practices, standards and policies.
• Network manager
  Maintain medium to large-scale corporate networks. Design routing protocols and establish policy frameworks for organisational networks.
• Senior programmer
  Design, develop and test new and existing platforms using local and cloud-based platforms.
• IT administrator
  Design and maintain IT systems within a wide range of organisations and businesses.
• IT researcher
  Conduct research into ICT software, hardware, systems, best practice and trends.

The average salary of a systems engineer ranges from around A$56 000 per year to A$103 000 per year.

Professional recognition

The Master of Information and Communication Technology offered at Melbourne (Bundoora) is accredited by the Australian Computer Society (ACS). Graduates of the Master of Information and Communication Technology at Melbourne (Bundoora) may apply for membership with the ACS. Membership may be subject to additional or ongoing requirements beyond the completion of the degree. Please contact the relevant professional body for details.

Please note, the following course structure is indicative and subject to change depending on your course location, offer year or how you tailor your course with specialisations, majors, minors and electives. Structures for the following year are not normally finalised until October, so the sample provided is based on the most recently approved structure.

To qualify for the award of Master of Information and Communication Technology, students must complete a total of 195 credit points across 2 years.

Year 1

Year 1 requires the completion of 90 credit points

including:

• 90 credit points from chosen Core

Year 2

Year 2 requires the completion of 105 credit points

including:

• 45 credit points from chosen Core
• 60 credit points from chosen Core choice

Core choice

Core choice subjects are one or more subject groups you need to select in your course. Core choice subjects may be specific to your course, major, minor, specialisation or other learning requirements.

Students to select one learning pathway from the list below.

Pathway

• Industry project pathway
• Research thesis pathway