Cybersecurity educationUniversity of Texas at San Antonio ranked top U.S. cybersecurity school

Published 28 February 2014

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) ranks as the top school for cybersecurity courses and degree programs according to a Hewlett-Packard (HP)-sponsored surveyof 1,958 certified IT security professionals. The schools undergraduate and graduate programs received top marks for academic excellence and practical relevance.

The University of Texas campus in San Antonio // Source: utsa.edu

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) ranks as the top school for cybersecurity courses and degree programs according to a Hewlett-Packard (HP)-sponsored survey of 1,958 certified IT security professionals. UTSA offers fourteen undergraduate and graduate programs in cybersecurity-related subjects such as digital forensics, secure design, and intrusion detection and response. These programs received top marks for academic excellence and practical relevance.

Computerworldnotes that the experience of UTSA’s faculty, and the school’s professional reputation within the security industry, contributed to the top ranking.

The Top 12 U.S. cybersecurity schools according to the HP survey:

  • University of Texas, San Antonio
  • Norwich University
  • Mississippi State University
  • Syracuse University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Purdue University
  • University of Southern California
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • George Mason University
  • West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  • U.S. Military Academy, West Point
  • University of Washington in Seattle

Most of the top institutions are NSA- and DHS - certified centersof academic excellence in information security. Their undergraduate and graduate level programs address both technical and theoretical issues in cybersecurity.

The Ponemon Institute, which administered the survey for HP, compiled the list of top universities based on responses from 1,958 security practitioners, of whom, 65 percent identified themselves as being at a supervisory level. From a list of 403 educational institutions, survey participants selected and ranked up to five institutions in descending order of preference. Respondents rated each school’s program based on their perception of the school’s academic rigor, faculty quality, and other measures.

Computerworldsays that schools were assigned weighted scores based on how often survey respondents selected each school, the order in which they were ranked by each respondent, and overall perceptions about program quality. Ninety-eight respondents selected UTSA as one of their top five schools for cybersecurity — of those, ninety respondents ranked the school as their first choice. UTSA also received an average of 9.40 on a scale of one to ten for program quality.

The survey responses reflect what IT security practitioners consider to be the country’s best schools for cybersecurity. The survey scores for the top-ranked schools are high enough to confirm that rankings are consistently positive. According to Larry Ponemon, founder of the Ponemon Institute, “It shows those particular schools stand out from other schools in the whole area of cybersecurity education.” The rankings are an unambiguous indicator of education quality and student performance, Ponemon said.