Non-Degree Certificates and Courses

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January 6, 2025

Non-Degree Certificates and Courses

Non-Degree Status

EC-Council University (ECCU) supports a population of students who are considered Non-Degree Seeking (NDS). Upon enrollment, NDS students must possess a high school diploma or its recognized equivalency.

NDS students who enroll in these courses are not enrolled in a specific program Courses taken as an NDS student can only be transferred after completion into Master of Science in Cyber Security or Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security, not a related Graduate Certificate Program.

Each time an NDS student completes or drops a course, the student will be required to fill out a new Student Enrollment Agreement to reapply for each course taken.
Students can earn up to a maximum of 12 non-degree credits.

What Can a Non-Degree Student Do?

Build-Your-College-Credits

Build Your College Credits

All non-degree students can attain course credits that can then be used in a variety of ways, including toward a degree program if you later decide to pursue one. This can be done simply by applying courses taken to the degree requirements for the program you gain admission into.

Learn-In-Depth-Without-the-Commitment

Learn In-Depth Without the Commitment

The non-degree status is created for students who wish to gain in-depth knowledge on a subject without having to commit to a full-fledged degree.

Attain-an-Industry-Recognized-Certification

Attain an Industry-Recognized Certification

Certain non-degree status offerings at ECCU give you the chance to attain a certification along with the course. This gives you the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge and attain certification to prove your knowledge and skills. Learn more about certifications here

Duration

Non-degree courses run for a 10-week term.

Application Process

The process is very similar to any application for a degree program. Simply fill out the non-degree application form providing all the requested details and pay the application fee of $100.
A complete application will include:
  1. The completed application
  2. A scan of your official government ID
  3. Document showing proof of education/certifications.

Once you complete the online admissions application, ECCU will notify you of your acceptance status within 7 business days.

Admission Requirements

In order to qualify for a course with non-degree status, applicants must:
  1. Be 18 years of age or older.
  2. Have earned and submitted proof of a high school diploma (or equivalent) or college degree (or certification).

Tuition

Every course is aligned to the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree program. Tuition prices and fees are the same as for the courses when taken within the degree program.

Undergrad:

$465
Per Credit Hour

Additional Fee:

  • $50 Technology fee per term enrolled
  • $100 Application fee (one-time fee)
  • $10 Transcript fee (plus shipping, if international)

Courses of Study

NDS Course Options:

Change to Degree-Seeking Status

Non-degree students looking to convert from a non-degree to degree status must apply for admission to their degree program of choice. If a non-degree student applies for and is granted admission to a degree program at ECCU, courses taken in non-degree status can be applied to the degree program except for Graduate Certificate Programs. In addition, a maximum of 18 graduate credit hours of transfer credit in the graduate program and 90 credits of transfer credit in the Bachelor’s program can be utilized from other institutions of higher education.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the non-degree status, the candidate must be 18 years of age or older and must have a high school diploma (or equivalent) or college degree (or certification).

Courses and Certification Comparison

Certain courses are directly mapped to industry-recognized certifications. Upon completion of a qualifying course, the student will be granted one exam voucher to attempt and earn the certification.

Certification Comparisons

Bachelor’s Degree Courses
Master’s Degree Courses
Certification
CIS 403 Network Security, Firewalls, and VPNs ECCU 500 Managing Secure Network Systems CND (ANSI Accredited)
CIS 404 Hacker Techniques, Tools, and Incident Handling ECCU 501 Ethical Hacking & Countermeasures CEH (ANSI Accredited)
CIS 406 System Forensics, Investigation, and Response ECCU 502 Investigating Network Intrusions and Computer Forensics CHFI (ANSI Accredited)
ECCU 503 Security Analyst and Vulnerability Assessment ECCU 506 Conducting Penetration and Security Tests CPENT
ECCU 513 Disaster Recovery EDRP
ECCU 522 Incident Handling and Response ECIH
ECCU 523 Executive Governance and Management* Associate C|CISO
ECCU 523 Executive Governance and Management* CCISO (ANSI Accredited)
*Upon successful completion of this course, students will be provided with an opportunity to take the EC-Council Information Security Manager (EISM) certification exam.
Note: Students who are interested in taking the CCISO exam will need to purchase a voucher from the ECCU Bookstore; in order to take the CCISO exam, student must show at least 5 years of experience in three of the CCISO domains.

FAQs

Ans. EC-Council University’s non-degree courses have been designed to focus on a specific course or courses from bachelor’s or master’s degree programs. Students can choose a maximum of two courses at a time in non-degree status.

Ans. EC-Council University’s non-degree students can use their earned credits towards a degree program. This will help them save both money and time. Non-degree programs can help students gain in-depth knowledge on a subject without long-term commitments.

Ans. Students who opt for a non-degree program at a university are those who enroll for certificate courses but are not officially registered in a full-fledged degree program. Upon completing the selected non-degree course, students can then transfer their earned credit and apply to a degree program.

NDS Course Description

CIS 302 Managing Risk in Information Systems

(3 Credits)

Managing Risk in Information Systems provides a comprehensive overview of the SSCP® Risk, Response, and Recovery Domain in addition to providing a thorough overview of risk management and its implications on IT infrastructures and compliance. Written by industry experts, and using a wealth of examples and exercises, this book incorporates hands-on activities to walk the reader through the fundamentals of risk management, strategies and approaches for mitigating risk, and the anatomy of how to create a plan that reduces risk.

CIS 304 Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance

(3 Credits)

Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance provides a unique, in-depth look at recent U.S.-based Information systems and IT infrastructure compliance laws in both the public and private sectors. Written by industry experts, this book provides a comprehensive explanation of how to audit IT infrastructures for compliance based on the most recent laws and the need to protect and secure business and consumer privacy data. Using examples and exercises, this Second Edition incorporates numerous hands-on activities to prepare readers to complete IT compliance auditing skillfully.

CIS 402 Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications

(3 Credits)

Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications covers every major aspect of security on a Linux system. Written by an industry expert, this book is divided into three natural parts to illustrate key concepts in the field. It opens with a discussion of the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities associated with Linux as an operating system using current examples and cases. Part 2 discusses how to take advantage of the layers of security available to Linux–user and group options, file systems, and security options for important services, as well as the security modules associated with AppArmor and SELinux. The book closes with a look at the use of both open-source and proprietary tools when building a layered security strategy for Linux operating system environments. Using real-world examples and exercises, this useful resource incorporates hands-on activities to walk readers through the fundamentals of security strategies related to the Linux system.

ECCU 500 Managing Secure Network Systems

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on evaluating network and Internet security issues, designing and implementing successful security policies and firewall strategies, and exposing the system and network vulnerabilities and defending against them. Topics include network protocols, network attacks, intrusion detection systems, packet filtering and proxy servers, Bastion hosts and honey pots, hardening routers, hardening security, email security, virtual private networks, and creating fault tolerance.

ECCU 501 Ethical Hacking & Countermeasures

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on how perimeter defenses work, how intruders escalate privileges, and methods of securing systems. Additional topics include intrusion detection, policy creation, social engineering, DoS attacks, buffer overflows, and virus creation.

ECCU 502 Investigating Network Intrusions and Computer Forensics

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on cyber-attack prevention, planning, detection, and incident response with the goals of counteracting cyber-crime, cyber terrorism, and cyber predators, and making them accountable. Additionaltopics include fundamentals of computer forensics, forensic duplication and analysis, network surveillance, intrusion detection and response, incident response, anonymity, computer security policies and guidelines, and casestudies. Upon successful completion of this course, students may take the Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) certification exam through ECCouncil.

ECCU 503 Security Analyst and Vulnerability Assessment

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on testing methods and techniques to effectively identify and mitigate risks to the security of a company’s infrastructure. Topics include penetration testing methodologies, test planning and scheduling, information gathering, password-cracking penetration testing and security analysis, social-engineering penetration testing and security analysis, internal and external penetration testing and security analysis, router penetration testing, security analysis, and reporting and documentation.

ECCU 506 Conducting Penetration and Security Tests

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on the mastery of the international standard for penetration testing. Topics include customers and legal agreements, penetration testing planning and scheduling, information gathering, external and internal network penetration testing, router penetration testing, firewalls penetration testing, intrusion detection system penetration testing, wireless networks penetration testing, password-cracking penetration testing, social-engineering penetration testing, PDA and cell phone penetration testing, and penetration testing report and documentation writing.

ECCU 510 Secure Programming

(3 Credits)

This course provides the essential and fundamental skills for secure programming. The most prevalent reason behind buggy code and vulnerabilities being exploited by hackers and malicious code is the lack of adoption of secure coding practices. This program will ensure that students are exposed to the inherent security drawbacks in various programming languages or architectures. They will be exposed to exercise secure programming practices to overcome these inherent drawbacks to pre-empt bugs from the code.

ECCU 513 Disaster Recovery

(3 Credits)

This course focuses on disaster recovery principles including assessment of risks to an enterprise, development of disaster recovery policies and procedures, the roles and relationships of various members of an organization, preparation of a disaster recovery plan, testing and rehearsal of the plan, implementation of the plan, and recovering from a disaster. Additional emphasis is placed on identifying vulnerabilities and taking appropriate countermeasures to prevent information failure risks.

ECCU 522 Incident Handling and Response

(3 Credits)

This course addresses various underlying principles and techniques for detecting and responding to current and emerging computer security threats. Additional emphasis is placed on computer forensics and its role in handling and responding to incidents. Through this course, students will be proficient in handling and responding to various security incidents such as network security incidents, malicious code incidents, insider attack threats, incident response teams, incident management training methods, and incident recovery techniques in detail.

ECCU 523 Executive Governance and Management*

(3 Credits)

This course is designed to bring together all the components required for a C-Level position by combining Governance, Security Risk Management, Controls, Audit Management, Security Program Management and Operations, Information Security Core Concepts, Strategic Planning, Finance, and Vendor Management to lead a highly successful IS program.

*Upon successful completion of this course, students will be provided with an opportunity to take the EC-Council Information Security Manager (EISM) certification exam.

Note: Students who are interested in taking the CCISO exam will need to purchase a voucher from the ECCU Bookstore; in order to take the CCISO exam, student must show at least 5 years of experience in three of the CCISO domains.

ECCU 524 Designing and Implementing Cloud Security

(3 Credits)

This course provides comprehensive knowledge of cloud services, their characteristics, benefits, applications, and service models. It covers planning, designing, and implementing cloud security controls. It delves into various cloud standards, countermeasures, and best practices to secure information in the cloud. The program also emphasizes the business aspects of cloud security, such as cloud uptime, uptime guarantee, availability, fault tolerance, failover policy, and how cloud security strengthens the business case for cloud adoption.