In collaboration with Penn State Global, Nick Giacobe, associate teaching professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), will travel to Kazakhstan to meet with cybersecurity students, faculty, researchers and leadership. 

“This is one of many efforts that Penn State is pursuing to extend our position within the global education market,” Giacobe said. “The College of IST will create a shared undergraduate and graduate program with Satbayev University beginning this fall.” 

The relationship will bring Satbayev students to Penn State to complete their fourth year of undergraduate studies and a one-year, three-semester master’s degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations. 

“These students are sponsored by their government to study cybersecurity and then return home to defend organizations and industry from cyberattack,” Giacobe said. "Penn State and IST have long been hosts to Kazakh students — one of our current doctoral students is from Kazakhstan — but, until now, haven’t been as formalized or even as aware of them as we could have been.” 

IST will also welcome four cybersecurity faculty researchers as part of a research exchange. 

“I am hopeful that we can attract students from the other institutions in Kazakhstan and other countries in similar mechanisms,” Giacobe said. “A handful of sponsored foreign students won’t fill in the gap created by the demographic cliff; however, it is part of the bigger picture of our mission. And we will continue to help find the right matches for students across all our programs where it makes sense.”