Cybersecurity literacy is important for all university students, both during their studies and after entering employment. Beyond general literacy, some students may benefit from being introduced to more specific cybersecurity topics that are relevant to their program of study. Educational institutions must equip students with cybersecurity awareness to ensure their safety in today’s digital landscape. Moreover, undergraduate students pursuing non-computing disciplines are highly disadvantaged as universities tend to show less interest in fully integrating cybersecurity in all disciplines. This paper aims to assess the extent of cybersecurity coverage in non-computing disciplines by analyzing the curricula of non-computing disciplines from several universities. A total of 10 universities for each discipline were selected from the UK that offer general academic programs. The targeted disciplines were Accounting and Finance, Business and Management, Criminology, Electronic Engineering, Health, and Law. Data was extracted iteratively from the university programs associated with these six disciplines by manually reading the contents of the programs and highlighting cybersecurity-related topics. The findings indicate low coverage of cybersecurity topics in these undergraduate programs with most of the universities offering them as optional/elective instead of core modules. These findings have negative implications for students’ preparedness in mastering the cybersecurity competencies directly relevant to their program of study, which will be essential for their specialized professional roles rather than just general digital workplace safety. They are also potentially disadvantaged in the job market as they cannot compete with cybersecurity aware competitors. As a result, it is recommended that universities should design an approach that enables relevant aspects to be identified and incorporated, as appropriate to the needs of the topic and the learner.

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Supporting Cyber Security Knowledge and Skills in Non-computing Disciplines

  • Maryam Almutairi,
  • Steven Furnell,
  • Helena Webb

摘要

Cybersecurity literacy is important for all university students, both during their studies and after entering employment. Beyond general literacy, some students may benefit from being introduced to more specific cybersecurity topics that are relevant to their program of study. Educational institutions must equip students with cybersecurity awareness to ensure their safety in today’s digital landscape. Moreover, undergraduate students pursuing non-computing disciplines are highly disadvantaged as universities tend to show less interest in fully integrating cybersecurity in all disciplines. This paper aims to assess the extent of cybersecurity coverage in non-computing disciplines by analyzing the curricula of non-computing disciplines from several universities. A total of 10 universities for each discipline were selected from the UK that offer general academic programs. The targeted disciplines were Accounting and Finance, Business and Management, Criminology, Electronic Engineering, Health, and Law. Data was extracted iteratively from the university programs associated with these six disciplines by manually reading the contents of the programs and highlighting cybersecurity-related topics. The findings indicate low coverage of cybersecurity topics in these undergraduate programs with most of the universities offering them as optional/elective instead of core modules. These findings have negative implications for students’ preparedness in mastering the cybersecurity competencies directly relevant to their program of study, which will be essential for their specialized professional roles rather than just general digital workplace safety. They are also potentially disadvantaged in the job market as they cannot compete with cybersecurity aware competitors. As a result, it is recommended that universities should design an approach that enables relevant aspects to be identified and incorporated, as appropriate to the needs of the topic and the learner.