Northeastern University's MA in Strategic Intelligence And Analysis

Northeastern University (NEU) in Boston created an MA in Strategic Intelligence & Analysis program in 2017 that offers a significant time and dollars savings for IWC warfare-qualified personnel and ONI civilian analysts.   

This resident or non-resident MA program is open to all members of the IWC, officer/enlisted, active/reserve, and ONI civilian analysts. I’ve recently become involved as  Professor of the Practice with a Master of Arts (MA) program at Northeastern University (NEU) in Boston which offers an approximately  25% tuition savings and 25% reduced number of class requirements for students (resident, or nonresident/correspondence) who are members of the Information Warfare Community - active, reserve, officer, enlisted - with proof of their IWC warfare qualification.   

OPNAV N2/N6C has reviewed the curriculum and has granted a 2400 Subspecialty in Strategic Intelligence to graduates as well.    

If a student uses the standard $250 per credit hour Navy Tuition Assistance, NEU also matches that total as well, creating even more savings!  NEU is a Yellow Ribbon school to boot, with all accompanying Veterans benefits and there is a full time Career Assistance for Veterans Center on campus.   En toto, a pretty amazing program which is what attracted me to it in the first place.    

As an aside and for the historical record:  NEU is the one campus in Boston that never shut down it’s ROTC unit during the Vietnam War … other campus’ which kept a skeleton program in that timeframe used NEU as their admin hub.  That’s patriotism!  

I’ve accompanied the MA program director, Dr. Craig Gruber - himself a Navy LT Intel Officer Reservist - for a presentation on the topic to RADM Sharp, CAPT Mike Hannan (N2N6C) and IWC Community leaders in Millington.   It has all’s full endorsement and it’s made ‘print’ on the IWC’s MILSUITE page and other community training newsletters.

- Estimated time for completion of this degree is 1-3 years, depending on the student’s work pace.    The faculty is world class with several former senior military and civilian intelligence professionals.

- The degree requires 45 credit hours.  Documentation of an Information Warfare pin - Officer or Enlisted, Active or Reserve - or a civilian analyst who has completed the equivalent DIA Level I or II training - earns a student 12 credit hours (27%) toward the completion of the degree.   Current NEU tuition rates are $646 per credit hour: this alone equates to an approximate $7,750 savings per student.

- NEU is Yellow Ribbon School with a full time Veterans Center on campus and also accepts - and matches - USN Tuition Assistance (TA) which is $250 per credit hour that offers even more student savings.  
Example: A student using USN Tuition Assistance can get $500 of the $646 credit hour paid for by the Navy and NEU ($250 USN TA + $250 NEU matching funds)

- The Program Director is Dr. Craig Gruber, a Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer who is the XO of a NIOC Unit at Fort Devens, MA   c.gruber@neu.edu   The program website 


Paul Becker