University Degree or Industry Certification? Why not both!
About the course
The information technology (IT) industry is already large and continues to expand, with employers actively seeking appropriately qualified IT professionals. IT underpins many activities in our modern world and a number of organisations are predicting shortages of appropriately qualified IT staff.
The Master of Information Technology (MIT) course is designed to meet the needs of practising information technology professionals, to enable them to further develop their level of expertise in particular as well as to contribute to and cutting edge areas of the profession.
The unique credit arrangement with EMC is recognition of the fact that IT professionals may also develop their IT skills through industry certification and that these skills are seen by Charles Sturt University as equally important as theoretical studies.
Charles Sturt University has been a world leader in developing programs that recognise industry certifications from well respected IT industry sources such as Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, Oracle and now EMC.
Aims
The Master of Information Technology course aims to provide advanced training in information technology for graduates.
As this course is aimed at any graduate with a recognised Bachelor's degree, those graduates without IT backgrounds will need to study fundamental subjects from the IT discipline before proceeding on to more advanced material.
Objectives
The Master of Information Technology has three principal objectives:
- to provide the skills for graduates to be proficient in the use of information technology and information systems to professionally develop solutions to real world problems
- to provide sufficient theoretical and conceptual background and associated skills to people already working in industry to use information technology more effectively as part of their jobs, and to deal effectively with information technology professionals who provide services to them
- to provide opportunities to study in cutting edge information technology areas for IT professionals wishing to upgrade their qualifications and/or skills.
Professional Recognition
The Master of Information Technology has been accredited by the Australian Computer Society as meeting the academic requirements for full professional membership. This is the highest level of accreditation awarded and is recognised world wide. Other professional societies such as the British Computer Society or Hong Kong Computer Society among others, recognise this level of certification.
Structure of the Program
The full program consists of 16 subjects but may be viewed as consisting of two stages:
- Stage one is comprised of postgraduate subjects which are offered to graduates who do not have a degree in Information Technology or Computer Science.
- Stage two consists of Master level subjects which students choose to study to meet their particular interests. Applicants with a degree in IT and EMC Proven Professional Expert level certification enter directly into stage two by receiving credit for all of stage one. This means that their program is reduced to 8 subjects.
Note that the current credit arrangement applies to any EMC Proven Professional Expert level certification.
The list of current subjects offered at the Masters level (ie Stage 2 only) is:
- ITC501 Strategic Information Management
- ITC509 Inside Active Directory
- ITC540 IT Infrastructure Management
- ITC542 Internetworking with TCP/IP
- ITC549 Website Operations and Publishing
- ITC550 Advanced SGML and XML
- ITC555 Networking and Security
- ITC557 Web-Based Information Systems
- ITC559 Readings in ICT/Multimedia (double subject over two sessions)
- ITC569 Modelling and Decision Support
- ITC574 IT for Managers
- ITC589 Multimedia Systems
- ITC594 e-Systems Infrastructure Development
It is also possible to undertake a project subject over two sessions as part of the studies.
Applicants who are not eligible to receive the maximum credit by virtue of not having EMC Proven Professional Expert level certification may still be eligible for some credit and should discuss this with the Course Coordinator before applying. If no credit is awarded then all of Stage 1 of the program will need to be studied.
The list of current subjects offered as part of Stage 1 is:
- ITC411 Introduction to Information Technology
- ITC412 System Analysis
- ITC423 Database Systems
- ITC431 Computer Networks
- ITC475 Ethics and Information Technology
- ITC493 Information Technology Project Management
- Plus two electives drawn from Information Technology subjects (coded ITC) at postgraduate level (4xx or 5xx).
Learn more about studying via Distance Education with CSU
