Developing the bench : building an effective homeland security undergraduate program

Abstract

The current Homeland Security (HLS) workforce is aging, and the future need is growing. Academia has a significant role in the development of HLS future leaders. This thesis uses a meta-analysis to define what academia's role should include. The meta-analysis utilized a template of common HLS rubric, then used systematic study of existing core curriculum, topics in frequently used HLS texts, opinions of HLS leaders, opinions of Emergency Managers, and the opinions of community college students. The study of existing curriculum reflects the topical choices of current academic program directors, from which one could draw conclusions based on popular adoption. The topics in commonly used texts were categorized with the rubric template, and then scored by frequency. The three surveys consisted of a prioritization of the rubric template topics from very important to very unimportant. HLS leaders were queried to capture the leader's future view of workforce educational needs. Emergency Managers were queried to capture what the current practitioners view as important. And community college students were queried to identify what future students view as important in further education. The net result of the meta-analysis is a recommendation of nine specific topical areas, of interest to current or potential HLS undergraduate programs.