AN Oxford Brookes computing course has been given formal recognition from GCHQ.

The computer science for cyber security master’s course has been awarded a provisional certification from the countries intelligence and security centre.

The institution is now one of only 17 universities to have a GCHQ certified programme.

Dr Faye Mitchell, Principal Lecturer in Postgraduate Computer and Communication at Oxford Brookes University said: “To have gained this government accreditation is testament to the hard work and expertise of our staff at Oxford Brookes.

“Oxford Brookes can provide students with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to design systems which will stand up to cyber-attacks - something that is becoming increasingly important as we have seen more attacks on key business, government and social IT infrastructures.”

Over the past few years, GCHQ and its partners across government have initiated a number of programmes across UK academia which are designed to address the knowledge, skills and capability requirements for cyber security research in the UK’s Cyber Security Strategy.

Research completed by the new Cyber Security Research Group in the Department of Computing and Communication Technologies at Oxford Brookes feeds into the teaching of the Computer Science for Cyber Security and also provides students with live projects and real-life situations in this area.

More information about the MSc Computer Science for Cyber Security can be found at brookes.ac.uk