Homeland Security Degrees in Demand

"Homeland security (HS) is a growing, versatile and dynamic profession," says Jim Ramsay, program coordinator for the BS program in homeland security at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. "We (educators, government officials, and military personnel and HS professionals) generally realize that following 9-11, homeland security became a new profession." However, he adds, the timing of events and the complex nature of the job at hand didn't allow higher education to produce practitioners at a rate that either the government (state or federal) or industry needed. Hence, there was a rapid influx of ex-military, ex-airline, ex-police, ex-security, etc., professionals into the fledgling profession and the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), all of whom are aging.

And when you take an aging workforce and an urgency for skilled, highly-trained professionals, the result is more and more institutions offering homeland security degrees.

Of course, it's not just terrorist threats that demand immediate response to protect people and their property. "Hurricane Katrina showed us that with all due respect to our efforts to manage infrastructure protection, customs and border protection, terrorism, transportation and shipping security, etc, there are real threats from natural disasters that have very large, very expensive and very difficult to fix consequences," explains Ramsay.

So What Do Homeland Security Degrees Teach Anyway?


Turning out professionals prepared with homeland security degress is very new, says Ramsay, so the exact skill set preferred by the government or industry remains an empirical question. That being said, at Embry-Riddle the focus is on critical thinking and analysis, team work, history and philosophy, around a core of classes that explore each of the major directorates of the Department of Homeland Security (customs and border protection, emergency planning and response, information analysis and infrastructure protection, science and technology and management). For instance, students learn the basics of our legal system, sources of law, types of law, due process, habeas corpus, the origin and legal basis for homeland security, international law and legal systems (the international court and the UN), risk analysis and evaluation, ethics, cross cultural and non western history, statistics and some basic sciences.

Furthermore, the school's homeland security degrees require concentration in specific areas such as aviation/transportation security, emergency planning, readiness planning, implementation and evaluation, and occupational safety and security.

Likewise, at Virginia Commonwealth University, its program in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has an "all-hazard approach," says Bill Newmann, undergraduate coordinator of the program. "The broad nature of our approach gives students an education is areas such as intelligence, risk management, strategic planning, legal and constitutional issues, and analysis of terrorist threats." The program also includes electives that allow students to specialize in anything from state and local government, to transportations systems to criminal procedure to risk and insurance, he adds.

An Array of Homeland Security Careers


Beyond the obvious man-made and natural disaster scenarios, those interested in homeland security degrees have a multitude of job opportunities. While you certainly may work within the military branches, state and federal government, or law enforcement, there are many homeland security needs within the private sector. "[Homeland security degrees prepare you for] consulting on emergency preparedness, occupational safety, cyber security, transportation security, and for organizations that have international exposures that will require a more professionally competent security officer," says Ramsay.

Homeland Security Degree in the Spotlight


Sonoma College, which offers the associate's degree in homeland response and emergency management, as well as certificate programs and continuing education credits in related areas, has developed a unique partnership with the New York City Fire Department to provide degree-education and college credits focused on homeland security.