Program Overview
Program Outline
Cohort Special Arrangement (CSAR) Terrorism, Risk, and Security Studies Professional Master’s Program (TRSS) is a unique, interdisciplinary program, delivered completely online, that addresses public safety and national security challenges from a number of perspectives. The TRSS program leverages SFU’s recognized strengths in Terrorism Studies, Human Intelligence, Computation and Big Data, Risk Assessment, Decision Analysis, and Public Policy to address national security issues from a variety of diverse, yet complimentary, disciplinary perspectives. The program currently consists of eight courses (of 13 weekly modules) and a final MA written research project (not normally exceeding 50 pages in length - about 7,500 words of main text). These milestones are completed over nine consecutive semesters, totally three years.
The Students
Current TRSS students come from a variety of national and state security backgrounds. These backgrounds include, but are not limited to, the Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Defence Research and Development Centre (DRDC), state police forces ranging from Vancouver to Ottawa, and security professionals – creating an engaging, interactive and dynamic ‘virtual’ classroom experience. Students are normally expected to hold a BA, however in “exceptional circumstances, a student may be admitted with lower formal qualifications … when there is significant professional experience relevant to the proposed area of scholarship” (Graduate Regulation 1.3.3). Students will be exposed to the latest research that will not only enhance current skillsets, but also build new capacities to critically approach and analyze current security threats. Students accepted on to the TRSS Program will normally be invited to attend a three-day, in-person orientation and information session that takes place at SFU’s main campus in Burnaby, BC in the first semester of the Program. Reasonable travel and accommodation expenses are covered by TRSS.
The Faculty
Our faculty members are frequently consulted by national and international organizations, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the BC arm of its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (BC INSET), the Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS), Public Safety Canada, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). They belong to associations such as the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Terrorism and Bias Crimes, and TSAS: The Canadian Network of Research on Terrorism, Security, and Society – a group supported by academic and government sources and tasked with creating the first Canadian Terrorist Incidents Database. Due to the unique and privileged access our program faculty have to local, national, and international security and intelligence groups, the CSAR TRSS MA Program will be able to offer a wide range of specialized course content to ensure the dissemination of industry best practices, but also encourage a broader perspective among national security and intelligence professionals. In addition to SFU faculty, TRSS instructors also include current and retired members of the military, security or police services who bring with them a ‘real-world’ perspective.