Master of Research in Cyber, Policing, Intelligence, Counter Terrorism, Security Studies and Criminology

This is a research degree, not a coursework master's, and that distinction matters more here than in most program listings: Macquarie's Master of Research (MRes) is explicitly built as a training pathway toward a PhD or Master of Philosophy rather than a standalone professional qualification, and this particular award lets students specialise their research within the Department of Security Studies and Criminology across cyber security, policing, intelligence, counter terrorism, security studies or criminology. Anyone weighing this against Macquarie's separate coursework Master of Cyber-Security, Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism should understand these are genuinely different degrees serving different purposes, one trains researchers, the other trains practitioners.

The structure runs in two parts across two years full-time: a Graduate Diploma year (Part A) of intensive coursework building research skills specific to the discipline, followed by a second year (Part B) spent producing a roughly 20,000-word thesis on a self-defined research problem within the security, policing or criminology space. Admission to progress from MRes to a doctorate depends directly on the final MRes mark: a mark of 65-74% typically supports progression to an MPhil, while 75% and above supports progression to a full PhD, so the second-year thesis grade functions as a genuine gatekeeping mechanism rather than a formality.

Given Macquarie's Department of Security Studies and Criminology sits within a policy-facing research environment with strong Canberra and law-enforcement links, students often use the MRes thesis to build a body of original research on an Australian security or policing problem that then carries directly into a funded PhD project, rather than starting a doctorate from a blank slate.