The University of Arizona is renewing funding for its scholarship program that will cover the cost of attending college for cybersecurity students.
The National Science Foundation awarded a $3.6 million grant for the renewal of CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program in which students have to commit to government service following graduation in return for receiving financial aid.
The University offers AZSecure Cybersecurity Fellowship, a two-year program that covers tuition and fees for graduate students and provides a stipend of $34,000 per academic year.
Started in 2013, the program has covered tuition of more than 30 students and the renewal will fund the education of about 20 more students over the next five to seven years.
The program at UA has a graduation rate of 95 percent, out of those everyone has been placed in government positions.
“CyberCorps has been called the West Point for cybersecurity education for government,” said Hsinchun Chen, Regents Professor of management information systems at the Eller College of Management.
“We train students who eventually will be the cyber defenders for the country,” he added.