MSc Criminology (Cybercrime and Cybersecurity)
University of Surrey
Key Information
Campus location
Guildford, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 - 2 year
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 21,000 / per year *
Application deadline
01 Jul 2024
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* full-time Overseas; full-time UK students: £10,300 | part-time UK students: £5,150; overseas students: £10,500
Introduction
Why Choose This Course
In a world where information technology is rapidly evolving and our dependence upon it is continually increasing, the growth of cybercrime is a major concern.
Our Criminology (Cybercrime and Cybersecurity) MSc has been created to meet the growing demand for enhanced knowledge and practical skills in the area of cybercrime and its control.
This course offers you a unique opportunity to develop specialist skills in both cybercrime and cybersecurity. Our master's is currently the only one in the UK providing a combined approach to cybercrime and cybersecurity.
This pioneering course will advance your understanding of the main theoretical approaches to cybercrime. It will also introduce you to some of the technical skills required to address challenges in the cybersecurity sector.
All our criminology masters courses meet the British Criminology Society benchmarks for postgraduate taught courses.
What You Will Study
The course is designed to develop your knowledge and understanding of both cybercrime and the cybersecurity response to this. It will also provide you with the expertise to apply some of the key criminological theories to explain issues in crime and the criminal justice system. Along the way, you will also acquire skills in conducting social research and will benefit from being trained to use some of the most important social research methods used by practitioners, policy-makers and researchers in the area.
Our course offers you the opportunity to work with leading theorists in the field of cybercrime and with experts from the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security. The Centre is one of only 14 research hubs recognised as Academic Centres of Excellence by GCHQ and the UK government.
Admissions
Curriculum
Academic Year Structure
The first semester of study on the MSc has been designed to provide you with the analytic foundations upon which the rest of the course then builds. You will begin to explore some of the ways in which corporations can behave more responsibly and will especially consider the environmental harms that corporate agents have been implicated in causing.
You will be introduced to some of the leading criminological theories and learn how the criminal justice system in the UK compares with the process of justice in other jurisdictions. In tandem with this, you will be able to explore emerging methods and techniques in the data science field to analyze crime data, identify new trends, and formulate explanatory models that can be used by practitioners to enhance responses to crime. You will also have the opportunity to develop skills in the interpretation of crime by studying qualitative research and analysis methods.
The second semester then offers you the opportunity to further enhance the foundational skills acquired in Semester 1. You will study some of the key challenges presented by the corporate crime world such as:
- The difficulties in identifying culpability and securing prosecutions
- Considering how best to conceptualize corporate perpetrators and their victims
- Evaluate the credibility of corporate social responsibility policies
- Develop a detailed understanding of typical corporate crimes, e.g. financial malpractice, corporate homicide and manslaughter, and environmental crimes.
This specialized focus will be complemented by further development of your criminological skills. You will look at typical crime patterns and how offending often takes place; explore the criminal justice system, and engage with some of the conceptual issues around the way that law and the justice process contribute to social control more widely.
Modules
The modules listed are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that modules may be subject to teaching availability, student demand, and/or class size caps.
The University operates a credit framework for all taught programs based on a 15-credit tariff. Modules can be either 15, 30, 45, 75, or 120 credits, and additionally for some masters dissertations, 90 credits.
The structure of our programs follows clear educational aims tailored to each program. These are all outlined in the program specifications which include further details such as the learning outcomes:
Full-Time
Year - 1
- Criminological theories
- Field methods
- Information security management
- Social data analytics
- Crime & Offending
- Cybercrime and cybersecurity
- Information security for business and government
- Law, Society & Social Control
- Masters dissertation
Part-Time
Year 1
- Criminological theories
- Information security management
- Crime & Offending
- Law, Society & Social Control
Year 2
- Field methods
- Social data analytics
- Cybercrime and cybersecurity
- Information security for business and government
- Masters dissertation
Timetable
Course timetables are normally available one month before the start of the semester. Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week (Monday – Friday). Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities. Part-time classes are normally scheduled on one or two days per week, details of which can be obtained from the Academic Hive.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
We offer career information, advice, and guidance to all students whilst studying with us, which is extended to our alumni for three years after leaving the University.
Our masters courses give you the opportunity to develop high-level research skills, which open doors to many careers. We also provide an online employability hub giving you access to extensive advice and guidance on how to take the next steps in your chosen career.
90 percent of our Department of Sociology postgraduate students go on to employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2023, HESA).
Some of our graduates have gone on to start their careers in the following areas:
- Information or cybersecurity
- Social media
- Large platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Meta
- IT-related positions
- Internet-focused work
- Work with ISPs, and mobile network providers.
English Language Requirements
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