Posted: 22nd August 2016

While the online world has grown exponentially, cyber security skills and capability are not increasing at a comparable rate. As announced by the Chancellor in November 2015, the Government is investing £1.9bn over the next five years to protect the UK from cyber attack. Some of this investment focuses on an ambitious skills programme to grow the UK’s cyber capable workforce, as our ability to defend ourselves in cyber space relies on a strong skills and knowledge base. 

The Department has been awarded a grant as part of a pilot programme, seeking to retrain individuals in cyber security. The aim of this programme is to address the significant and increasing mismatch in the supply and demand of adequately skilled cyber security professionals in a short timeframe, and to test the most effective approaches to retraining. The grant will cover the payment of half the tuition fees for up to four students undertaking our GCHQ-certified MSc in Software and Systems Security. These students will begin the Master’s degree programme in the 2016/17 academic year. 

Eligible students will be selected by the university and must meet the following criteria:

•          Be a UK or EU citizen who is normally resident in the UK other than for the sole purpose of education.

•          Be undertaking the course specified above and not undertaking any other forms of formal education.

•          Not applying for this course straight from an undergraduate degree.

•          Not previously having held employment as a cyber security professional.

In selecting the students for the bursary, preference will be given to students meeting these additional preferred criteria:

•          Persons looking to retrain into the cyber security profession, for example, returners-to-work after parental leave, those who are currently unemployed, and mid-career transitioners

•          Ex-armed forces personnel not already covered by any armed forces grant

•          Ex-police officers not already covered by any police service grant

•          General IT practitioners looking to specialise in cyber security

•          Demographics currently underrepresented in the cyber security profession 

The deadline for sending in applications is Sunday 1st October 2016, and needs to be in the form of a covering letter detailing how you meet the selection criteria which you need to email to jackie.jordan@cs.ox.ac.uk.

If you have any queries about the scholarship, please contact Jackie Jordan. Email: jackie.jordan@cs.ox.ac.uk.  Tel: 01865 283521