The Commonwealth Bank and the University of New South Wales will develop a centre of expertise for information security, the two organisations announced today.
The $1.6 million, five-year partnership will include developing an applied cyber security undergraduate curriculum, the establishment of a security engineering lab, and support for PhD researchers.
The undergraduate curriculum will be Creative Commons licensed and be available as massive open online courses (MOOCs).
The first ‘SEC.EDU’ course will be available online through Openlearning.com, starting in Semester 1 2016.
“This investment will build on UNSW’s enviable record of producing some of the world’s best computer scientists by providing a complete cyber security curriculum that prepares students for the roles most in demand in the tech sector,” said the bank’s chief information security and trust officer, Ben Heyes, in a statement.
“This partnership will help drive the pipeline of professionals needed to support Australia’s growing digital economy,” said UNSW associate professor in computer security and cybercrime, Richard Buckland.
“It will also build Australia’s capability for teaching security engineering and establish and share an up-to-date curriculum. This is about raising the bar for cyber security education across the nation.”
The Commonwealth Bank today also revealed a $10 million boost to its investment in UNSW’s Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T).
“Our investment has a long-term focus and is an example of potential collaboration and commercialisation. It enables us to support innovation in Australia as well as aligning ourselves with innovation that we believe will materially benefit our customers and shareholders over the next decade,” said bank’s CEO, Ian Narev.
Read more: Commonwealth Bank backs UNSW quantum computing research