Overview

NJIT accepted applications in its first Master of Science in Emergency Management and Business Continuity program starting in the spring semester of 2007. This program is interdisciplinary in nature and draws upon the technology expertise that resides in NJIT’s engineering and science colleges, schools, and departments. NJIT has in place a collaborative certificate program that offers students a "painless" path to an academic degree see HLS Collaborative Certificates. See the Introduction section of this website for further information concerning this new program,

Master of Science in Emergency Management and Business Continuity

This new interdisciplinary degree program is being coordinated by the Information Systems Department at NJIT. However the program involves active participation by numerous scientific and engineering departments throughout NJIT.

We are now accepting students for the program described under the existing Master of Interdisciplinary Studies degree at NJIT.

Courses started being offered for this program in the Spring 2007 semester. We will be offering at least two courses a semester until there is sufficient enrollment to increase the offerings. Every required course and a sufficient subset of elective courses will be offered online to allow completion of the degree in this mode.

Objectives of the Program

This program is intended to:

* Allow students from most undergraduate degrees to enter a Master's Level program in the field of Emergency Management and Business Continuity.
* Encourage those with undergraduate degrees in the Physical, Biological, Social Sciences, Engineering, Management, Public Administration, and Communications to enter this evolving field.
* Facilitate the acquisition of two master's degrees by allowing three relevant courses that can count toward either degree.
* Encourage outstanding students to consider an academic path to a Ph.D. and to conduct research in their original (undergraduate degree) field that is relevant to areas of emergency management and business continuity. For students going on to a participating PhD program, all 30 credits will be counted toward the 90 graduate credit PhD requirement.
* Provide a part time path to the degree based entirely on courses offered online through the Web, using appropriate group communications technology that allows for active participation with other course and degree students (Virtual Classroom™ and Asynchronous Learning Network approaches).
* Meet the new policy of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), which will require, beginning in 2010, an academic degree rather than just the current four years of experience requirement.
* Bring about the integration of the endeavors of Emergency Management and Business Continuity into one academic program, given that crises and disasters are impartial about their impact on both public and private sector segments of society.
* Increase the professionalism of this field, which is evolving in importance and societal needs, by increasing its presence in academic, research, and development professional communities.
* Providing an open door to good students in any undergraduate degrees by providing a "bridge" program of certain undergraduate requirements for some of the specialty areas.

Homeland Security and Homeland Defense Specialty Area

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) CHDS is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). In addition to developing the courses that comprise the very successful MA in Homeland Security program Masters Curriculum the CHDS created UAPI (University and Agency Partnership Initiative) UAPI. NJIT is one of 28 Universities and Colleges in the US accepted as full UAPI partners. The benefits are many and course sharing is a major one. A key goal of UAPI is using the MA HLS courses as a “force multiplier” for consistent graduate level Homeland Security education throughout the US. In addition any courses developed by NJIT and other partners are also shareable suggesting that course sharing is a 2 way street. To this end NJIT is developing a Homeland Security and Homeland Defense Specialty Area with the Emergency Management and Business Continuity Program.

NJIT is planning to offer the following courses using the shareable course material (lectures, presentations, articles) developed for the Naval Postgraduate School MA in Homeland Security program:


* Critical Infrastructure Protection in Homeland Security
* Intelligence for Homeland Security: Organizational and Policy Challenges (to be offerred Spring 2008)
* Introduction to Homeland Security and Homeland Defense (to be offerred Spring 2008)
* Radicalization
* Technology for Homeland Security

These courses are part of the already developed Naval Postgraduate School MA in Homeland Security Program and will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the major issues required by those either in or aspiring to leadership positions within Homeland Security.