Education Higher Education Guide
BY SHELBIE HAMILTON
2024
Welcome to Community Impact’s annual Higher Education Edition. This guide features the latest updates and resources about local higher education institutions in your community. All the stories were written by our team of local journalists. In this year’s edition, our team of reporters bring you stories about the local higher education institutions.
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Tracy Ruckel General Manager truckel@ communityimpact.com
The University of Texas at Dallas www.utdallas.edu 972-883-2111 The Future Demands Different
What's inside
Check out a listing of higher education options in North Texas (Page 16-17)
Collin College adds a trio of new course offerings for the fall semester (Page 18)
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Collin College sees growth in cybersecurity degree programs
The school now has over 2,000 students enrolled with a declared major in cybersecurity, Smith said. About the program The cybersecurity industry has various focuses, Smith said, such as information assurance, aimed at protecting personal data and health infor- mation. Other focus areas include penetration testing, ethical hacking, digital forensics and risk management. “Technology is playing more of a role in every- one’s lives, whether it’s the car you drive or the appliances you use at home, they’re all connected to the network somehow, someway,” Smith said. “Protecting that data that [the] technology uses and relies upon is crucial, and we need trained professionals that understand that technology.”
Collin College saw an over 20% increase in enrollment for its cybersecurity programs from the 2022-23 academic year to the 2023-24, according to college data. Damien Smith, director of the college’s cyberse- curity program, says the increase is tied to growth in the cybersecurity industry, as well as business growth in the region. “Dallas-Fort Worth, [the] North Texas area, is growing massively, exponentially, and there’s definitely some opportunities for people with certain skills in cybersecurity to flourish in that environment,” Smith said. The details Collin College began offering a dedicated cybersecurity program in fall 2008 and 18 stu- dents enrolled the first semester. The Bachelor of Applied Technology in cybersecurity was intro- duced in spring 2020, with 24 enrolling the first semester.
Degree growth
Students enrolled
Bachelor's of Applied Technology in Cybersecurity 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 24 67 195 323 444
Associate of Applied Science in Information Systems Cybersecurity
538
2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
790
1,203
1,489
1,735
SOURCE: COLLIN COLLEGE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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PLANO SOUTH EDITION
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