The Certificate program requires completion of
       -15 credit hours of graduate courses
       - 6 credit hours of core courses
        -9 hours of listed and approved electives

Core courses will be offered by the Department of Political Science & Geography.  Elective courses are offered by the other colleges at UTSA, including Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Liberal and Fine Arts, Sciences, and Social & Policy Sciences.  The program is intentionally designed to move students from the core material exploring, first, fundamental aspects of homeland security and defense, and second, a focus on the total threat environment in which security and defense organizations and systems plan responses.  Core courses will devote significant time to exploring concepts, issues, and controversies linking homeland security and defense to global conditions, cultures, and foreign policy dynamics.  Upon completing the core courses, students select electives to encourage them to self-select individual subject matter needs that best suit their professional objectives

Core Courses:

Security Studies, POL 5103, Homeland Security and Defense the Geo-Political Context

An overview of threat scenarios, organizational dynamics, communications systems and practices, domestic and foreign geospatial factors, and foreign policy considerations bearing on homeland security and defense planning.  Lectures will be devoted to summarizing a range of issues that security and defense planning experts must be prepared to address to more effectively interact with counterparts and peers serving in civilian or military capacities who may be organized in response to regional, national, or international crises.  Class activities may include guest lectures, readings, discussions, debates, practical exercises, and student papers and presentations.

Security Studies, POL 5103, The Threat Environment:  Domestic and International

An in-depth review of a range of threats that must be considered by planning and policy making organizations in conceptualizing and developing homeland security and defense strategies.  Lectures may focus on a range of threat scenarios (natural disasters, transportation disasters, hostage takings, CBRN attacks, cyber attacks, etc.), security threat modeling, law and legal institutions in crisis situations, sociology and psychology of panic, communications systems and the media in emergencies, dynamics of leadership and decision making in pre-panic planning and panic climates, political and governmental responses, anticipation of future threat scenarios, and inter-organizational cooperation and response negotiations.  Class activities may include lectures, case studies and practical exercises, analysis of research, and team projects.

Additional HLS courses:

Depending upon need and faculty approval, specialized courses in homeland security and defense may be developed in the Department of Political Science and Geography.  Other departments may also decide to develop courses of a specialized that bridge between core discipline issues and methods and applications in homeland security and defense.

Elective courses: 

The list elective of courses provides for maximum flexibility to allow students to self-identify with subject matter that most directly relates to his/her professional needs.