Széchenyi István University is launching a Master's degree course in "Modern Technologies and Cybersecurity Law" in Hungarian and English from September. Those who complete the course will acquire the IT, engineering and legal skills to become professionals capable of responding to one of the great challenges of our time. Cybersecurity is of particular importance for enterprises and public organisations, that is why students with a Master's degree will be in high demand in the domestic and international job market.

Participants of the new Master’s degree course of Széchenyi István University will be qualified as certified modern technology and cybersecurity legal organisers.

Perhaps one figure will suffice to illustrate the case for the training: the FBI's 2022 report estimates that the economic damage caused by detected and reported cyber attacks is in the billions of dollars, and is steadily doubling year on year. These processes are further enhanced by today's geopolitical crises.

How not to get caught in the trap of the network? - this is where the professionals graduating from the new Master’s degree course at Széchenyi István University can help, according to dr. Roland Kelemen, assistant professor of Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences and prof. dr. Péter Smuk, the dean of the faculty. (Photo: András Adorján)

It is a huge advantage of Széchenyi István University that its nine faculties cover eleven fields of sciences. By synthesising them, we can accumulate multidisciplinary knowledge that is not available in many institutions. We have already benefited from this common knowledge in several researches, from digitalisation to self-driving cars or artificial intelligence. We are taking advantage of this opportunity with our new course, which offers students legal, technical and IT knowledge and skills. We are doing it in cooperation with the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Informatics and Electrical Engineering, Kautz Gyula Faculty of Business and Economics and Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences”, said Prof. dr. Péter Smuk, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University.

Dr. Roland Kelemen, assistant professor, the initiator of the new course described it as unique and said it would fill a gap. “Between 2021 and 2022 I participated in an American training within the framework of a Fulbright scholarship programme. The importance of experts who understand the IT and legal aspects of the topic being available for the companies was recognised earlier overseas. This knowledge is increasingly indispensable for public administration, national security, multinational, medium and small enterprises. Those who have completed the training can play an important role in preventing, averting the problems and, when problems occur, they can handle them. They know the legal aspects of all this, so they can produce the internal regulations that are increasingly required by international standards," he said, explaining the usefulness of the new Master's degree. As an example, he mentioned the new network security directive of the European Union (NIS2), which will enter into force in spring 2024 and will directly affect around 2,600 businesses in Hungary.

Dr. Roland Kelemen has higlighted:

the training is equally useful for professionals with a degree in IT or technology but no legal knowledge, or law graduates less experienced in the field of IT who will acquire specialised knowledge that is useful in practice and increasingly in demand in the labour market.

The training will also cover a number of topics, such as digital child protection, which are planned to be offered as a stand-alone short course, with a micro-certificate after completion.

"Our Master's programme offers knowledge that is not only relevant and useful domestically, but also globally, which is why we are also offering the degree course in English. The cyberspace goes beyond national regulations, therefore foreign students can also gain valuable knowledge here", Prof. dr. Péter Smuk emphasised.

More information about the Hungarian language course and how to apply can be found here, and the English language brochure will soon be available on the admissions.sze.hu website.