
By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University has seen massive growth in a program launched four years ago.
President Elizabeth Kennedy says the cybersecurity program has continued growing in interest
"We launched the undergraduate program in the fall of 2021 with three students, this fall we had 32, if I'm doing my math right, I think that's about a 92% increase," Kennedy tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And we know that freshman are about 60% of that program, so that's another area where the demand is high."
Kennedy says the university has also developed a state-of-the-art laboratory for the program within the Houlne Center for Convergent Technology with a war room for students learn to understand threat detection and mitigation.
Kennedy says that cybersecurity is a field that is ever-growing
"So again, it's where there's student demand and regional and actually national workforce needs," Kennedy explains. "But this is every business, it's every agency, hospitals."
Kennedy says those who graduate from the program as an information security analyst, they could land a job with a starting salary of $80,000 to $90,000 in a field that is projected to grow eight percent over the next 10 years.
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