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KU is hoping to land on a list that will attract the attention of officials from the CIA to the FBI — the small list of universities offering a degree in the field of intelligence and national security work.

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday is expected to approve the University of Kansas’ request to create a new undergraduate Intelligence and National Security Studies degree. If the new bachelor’s degree is approved, KU would become just the sixth university in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in national security while also having a partnership with a key intelligence center of the U.S. Department of Defense.

The idea of a degree that could help students land jobs as everything from analysts to agents with the U.S. intelligence industry has been a long time in the making. In 2018, KU received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. The goal of the grant was to create a program where various KU students could earn a certificate in the field of intelligence and national security work.

By 2022, as the Journal-World reported, about 120 students were completing the certificate program, or going a step further and getting a minor in the field. Recently, KU surveyed the 116 students who are studying to receive a minor in the field about whether they would have been interested in getting a full-fledged degree, if one had been available. More than 50% said they would have pursued the major at KU, if one had been offered.

Beginning next school year, one likely will be available. Regents are scheduled to approve the new degree as part of Wednesday’s consent agenda, which is reserved for items that have already received positive recommendations and are set for quick approval.

A trio of subcommittees of the Regents have recommended approval of the new degree program, in part because KU is projecting that the program will enroll 40 degree seekers in its first year and be up to 80 by its third year. KU also is estimating that current faculty, primarily within the department of political science, will be able to provide the necessary instruction for the degree.

The four-year degree program will include all the standard general education requirements, but also will involve a heavy dose of foreign language training, a couple of introductory classes about the U.S. intelligence community, and several high-level courses on topics such as counterintelligence and intelligence analytics, among others.

KU would join five other universities that have an undergraduate degree program in either national security or intelligence while also having a partnership with the defense department’s ICCAE. The others are: Arizona State, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Arizona, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Maryland.

KU is touting that the degree program combined with the partnership with the US. Department of Defense center will give KU graduates a strong advantage in finding internships and jobs with various federal agencies.

KU leaders also have said that the university’s long history in providing specialized foreign language classes to members of the military will be a benefit to the program. KU is already one of about 10 schools in the U.S. designated as a Department of Defense Language Training Center. KU has particular expertise in Russian and Central and Eastern European Studies. KU has been training foreign area officers for Soviet-era countries for more than 50 years. Those foreign area officers often are assigned to embassy positions, and their duties often include intelligence work, KU officials have said.

While entities like the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigations often get the most attention in the movies and media, KU officials note that about 16 federal agencies — including entities like the treasury and energy departments — are considered to be part of the national intelligence community.

The new degree also comes at a time when KU is building a new research center that will focus on national security topics. Last year KU received $22 million in federal funding to create a new national security research center on KU’s West Campus. KU leaders have said that center likely will be a home for researchers ranging from cybersecurity to radar technology to artificial intelligence.

The center will be built on KU’s West Campus, which is north and west of 23rd and Iowa streets, as part of the KU Innovation Park development. Excavation work on the center currently is underway.