Mönchengladbach. Good news for the Cyber Campus NRW (CCNRW). The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has pledged further funding for the ongoing joint project between The Hochschule Niederrhein and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. In the 2020-2023 pilot phase, the establishment of the CCNRW was supported with around six million euros. The continuation of funding for the years 2024 and 2025 has now been approved by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Within these two years, a further 5.5 million euros will flow to the two universities. The Hochschule Niederrhein will receive 1.375 million euros per year.
Minister Ina Brandes: "We have known at least since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: Artificial intelligence and cyber security are the big issues of the future that will affect everyone's lives. At the Cyber Campus NRW, we are therefore training students to become qualified specialists for industry and the public sector. They will help us to recognize hacker attacks, prevent them at an early stage and ensure greater security on the Internet. The Cyber Campus NRW thus makes an important contribution to the business location and prosperity in our country."
"Many hundreds of enrolled students and the first cohort of proud graduates speak for themselves. The state government has confirmed the success of the Cyber Campus NRW in Mönchengladbach and St. Augustin. It has therefore secured further funding for the Cyber Campus NRW. We are now well positioned and can continue to make our contribution to cyber security in the future. We would like to expressly thank the state government for this," says Dr. Thomas Grünewald, President of The Hochschule Niederrhein, in light of the good news from Düsseldorf.
The Cyber Campus NRW was already supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with around six million euros during the three-year pilot phase, which began in 2020. Following the first graduates of the campus, further cyber security specialists can now be apprenticeships. They will then be able to detect hacker attacks at an early stage or fight cybercrime, for example.
Around 250 new students have registered for the current winter semester in Mönchengladbach, including over 100 students on the new Digital Forensics degree program. Around half of them are police officers from NRW who are completing their studies in Digital Forensics on a part-time basis alongside their active service. In total, around 600 students are studying at The Hochschule Niederrhein's Cyber Management Campus.
The Hochschule Niederrhein and Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg have joined forces to form the CCNRW. The Hochschule Niederrhein's Mönchengladbach campus offers the Cyber Security Management (Bachelor's and Master's) and Digital Forensics (Bachelor's) degree programmes. The Bachelor's degree programme in Digital Forensics is run jointly by the two universities. The Cyber Security & Privacy (Bachelor's & Master's) degree programme is offered at the Sankt Augustin campus of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.
