Masters by Coursework & Thesis

The course is designed as a two year qualification to be worked on part time, and will consist of a combination of coursework modules completed in year one and a research dissertation completed in year two. The coursework modules will be delivered in Grahamstown on the Rhodes University campus during the course of the year.

Year 1
Modules will start on a Friday morning, completing by lunch on Sunday. These will be assessed by a written assignment based on the module material to be submitted roughly four weeks later (dates will be specified at each module). Some modules may also require presentations to be given or topics to be worked on while in attendance which may contribute to the assessment mark. Dates of modules for this year are given in the following section.

Four modules will run during the year covering a range of Information Security topics such as:

• Introduction to Information Security
• Penetration Testing
• Information Security Management
• Application Security (Including web applications)
• Security Metrics
• Security within the Enterprise
• Threat Modelling
• Incident Response

A fifth module will run in parallel to these focusing on the Research aspects, and will culminate with the submission of an approved research proposal by year end. 

Year 2
The second year is focused on the research project which needs to be written up (roughly 80-100 pages) and is based on the research proposal worked on in year one.  This research needs to be focused on some aspect within the information security space. The individual research topic will be decided during the second half of  year 2. There will be one compulsory workshop to attend during the year (currently targeted in late May), although candidates will most likely need at least one other visit to campus during the year to liaise with your research supervisor. Details of this will be discussed in the Research Module. This research is then sent for external examination and corrections must be done prior to graduation. Examination normally takes 6-8 weeks.