ACM TechNews

Computer Science Enrollments: The Real News

Computing Community Consortium (07/11/08) Lazowska, Ed

Computing Community Consortium Chairman Ed Lazowska cites CRA Taulbee Survey data indicating an upward trend in freshmen interest and enrollments in computer science, and points to people's perceptions of the job market and the degree of "buzz" associated with the field of computer science as the most critical factors underlying fluctuations in enrollments. He notes that the number of annually granted computer science PhDs has ballooned in the past two years, and he attributes this trend to the collapse of many startups in 2001 and the consequential influx of top bachelors graduates into the job market. Lazowska says interest in bachelors programs experienced a similar decline sparked by the tech implosion, a lack of abundance of and sexiness about tech jobs, and media-promulgated fear about offshoring. However, since then tech has reacquired its cool factor and startups and jobs are plentiful. "Computer science degrees ... [are] heading back up, and it's important to keep things in perspective relative to other fields," Lazowska writes. Lazowska notes that a background in computer science can be applicable to many kinds of careers in disciplines as diverse as law, medicine, business, and biotechnology. He points to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections show that 70 percent of all newly-created jobs between now and 2016 will be in computer science, while 62 percent of all job openings will be in that field. The author concludes that companies and individuals should put pressure on the federal government to create policies to support education and research in order to boost the population of computer science grads as well as the field's allure.

http://www.cccblog.org/2008/07/11/computer-science-enrollments-the-real-news/

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