This accredited doctoral degree is one of the first of its kind in the world. Each year a Learning Community (LC) of students enters this three-year program, with residence for selected summer weeks (two weeks each year) and four weekends throughout the year combined with distance-learning.

The program immerses students in a generalist civil security doctorate using the three distinct areas recognized by ASIS – International: National, Corporate, and Information Assurance/Cyber Security. This is a scholar-practitioner degree, which has a strong research and analysis component that is ultimately demonstrated by a successful dissertation.

Completion of this degree prepares the graduate to assume executive-level responsibilities of a major security position within government, business or education. Further, this terminal degree prepares students to become post-secondary teachers in the professional security field at institutions that require or expect graduation from an accredited doctoral program.

Based on the scholar-practitioner structure of this degree program, all full-time and adjunct professors hold the appropriate doctoral degrees, professional certification(s) and years of professional security experience – with most over 25 years. Since 2009, NJCU has been a National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) by the National Security Agency (NSA). NSA’s CAE designations are considered reciprocal with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – authorizing various research projects, grants and scholarships for security professionals that are participating in DSc degree program. And in 2019, the NJCU Professional Security Studies program became one of the few in the country to be designated as a center of academic excellence (CAE) in both cybersecurity and intelligence.

Admission Requirements–Doctorate

Admission to the Doctorate in National Security Studies program requires that the Applicant:

1. Has completed a master’s degree;
2. has a minimum of four years of relevant work experience in Security within any of three domains: national, corporate and or information assurance/cyber security; and
3. has met all the minimum admission requirements of the Graduate Studies Office, including successful completion of any of the major graduate student assessment tests. (Currently, the GRE, GMAT, LSAT and MAT are accepted.)

Application Deadline–Doctorate

Complete applications must be received by April 15 (to start in July).

Policies and Procedures for Doctoral Students

Students are required to follow the policies and procedures outlined in the Handbook for Doctoral Programs, posted on the Academic Affairs Web site at https://issuu.com/njcu/docs/2020_doctoral_handbook_online

Degree Requirements

(48 credits)

The D.Sc. degree requires 90 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, and 48 beyond the master’s. Of these hours, 30 are required core courses and 18 represent applied research in the form of a traditional dissertation.

Program Requirements

The program requirements include the core requirements, a comprehensive examination and dissertation credits.

All courses are completed with pre on-campus session readings (books and course materials are mailed to students, six weeks prior to the start of classes), rigorous academic research, extensive class participation, student presentations and final research projects.

Comprehensive Examination (No Credits)

All doctoral students must successfully pass the comprehensive examination before moving on to candidacy for the Doctor of Science degree.  The exams will be placed on the transcript and will be graded -  Pass or Failed. Each candidate will have two opportunities to receive a grade of Pass.  Those students that fail will be academically dropped from the program. 

Recycling of Candidates

Students in the LC may experience critical life-events (medical, family, work, etc.) of individual students.  In such cases, the impacted doctoral student may ask for a leave of absence and can be reinstated at the same appropriate point of a subsequent LC, once the crisis has been resolved.  Candidates are thereby recycled into the program to assist with potential attrition that would otherwise occur in traditional doctoral programs. 

Dissertation (18 credits)

All doctoral students are expected to complete an original dissertation, in collaboration with their assigned mentor and dissertation committee.  Candidates for the Doctor of Science degree are required to complete this dissertation within seven years of the initial coursework.  Exceptions to this norm are anticipated only for those instances that are consistent with New Jersey City University's policies on absences.  Candidates failing to complete this requirement within the scheduled three-year cycle of their assigned learning community are required to repeat separately SECU 970 until completion and this is referred to as matriculated status.  Failure to maintain matriculated status will result in termination from the program. 

The following courses comprise the dissertation component of the Doctor of Science Degree:

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the Civil Security Leadership, Management and Policy Doctoral program, students will be able to:

1. Use the skills of applied research to conduct original research and analysis on contemporary national security issues (Research).
2. Understand the importance of developing sound policy measures within governmental, non-governmental and private sector organizations in a developing a national security strategy (Policy).
3. Apply scholarly research to develop and implement executive level communication plans in the area of strategic communication, crisis communication, and media relations (Communication).
4. Identify seamless integration strategies proactive critical incident planning and response, that will incorporate the best practices regarding national, corporate, and cyber security in an urban setting (Emergency Management).
5. Demonstrate the capacity to use quantitative and qualitative analysis with the integration of current research and data involved in national security initiative (Data Analysis).