May 24, 2005
Vitality of the Major in Computer Science
In the issue dated May 27, 2005, The Chronicle of Higher Education published "Student Interest in Computer Science Plummets" by By ANDREA L. FOSTER. You need a subscription to the Chronicle to read it, or I can send you a copy by email. It stated:
"Students once saw computer-science classes as their ticket to wealth. Now, as more technology jobs are outsourced to other countries, such classes are seen as a path to unemployment.
New data show students' interest in the discipline is in a free fall. The number of newly declared computer-science majors declined 32 percent from the fall of 2000 to the fall of 2004, according to a report released this month by the Computing Research Association, which represents computer scientists in industry and academe. Another survey, from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, shows that the number of incoming freshmen who expressed an interest in majoring in computer science has plummeted by 59 percent in the last four years." (Side note - it sure seems strange to see a hyphen between computer and science.)
Those of us teaching in the discipline can certainly attest to the drop in enrollment. While enrollments are cyclic in this field, there has been a steady decline in the last few years. When I started teaching CS in 1980 we had several years of a 'crisis' of over-enrollment.
Today, I caught a portion of a broadcast on the Kojo Nnambi show on WAMU, that dealt with the same issues, but included discussions with listeners. The title is "Computer Science as a Major" and it's available online through links on the Web page with URL http://www.wamu.org/programs/kn/05/05/24.php. It was excellent, particularly the parts where the guests respond to phone calls that characterize a computer scientist as someone who sits alone all day coding. The guests were Joanne McGrath Cohoon, Sociologist and professor of Science, Technology, and Society, University of Virginia, and Stuart Zweben, Chair, Computer Science and Engineering Department, Ohio State University. Joanne Cohoon, also affiliated with the National Center for Women & Information Technology, was particularly good at expressing why the discipline should be more attractive to women than it is.
Posted by ernie at May 24, 2005 06:04 PM
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