Computer Science Majors on the Rise
Okay, let me say this as quietly as possible...IT'S OKAY ONCE AGAIN TO MAJOR IN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING!
Quiet enough?
According to a recent post on the Computing Research Association's (CRA) Web site, CRA's Taulbee Survey of PhD-granting computer science (CS) and computer engineering departments in North America colleges and universities have seen some growth. The survey, which has been conducted annually since 1974, and whose results of the 2007-2008 survey were released recently, measured CS bachelor's degree enrollments and production among PhD-granting departments in the United States since the late 1990s.
According to the Higher Education Research Institute, the percentage of incoming undergraduates among all degree-granting institutions who indicated they would major in CS declined by 70 percent between fall 2000 and 2005. The number of students who declared CS majors among the PhD-granting departments surveyed by CRA also fell. After five years of decline, the number of new CS majors in the fall 2005 was half of what it had been in the fall of 2000 (15,958 vs. 7,952). From 2005 to 2007, the number of new majors was flat, but in 2008 the number had increased to 8,734 students declaring CS majors.
Stabilization in the number of new majors over the past several years has stopped a decline in the total enrollment in CS. Enrollments declined from their peak in 2001-02 through 2006-07, but 2007-08 saw a slight uptick. If the number of new majors continues to rise, enrollment will follow.
New majors take anywhere from three to five years to complete their degree. CRA expects stabilization to occur and then be followed by an increase in new majors, which will take about three to five years to be seen in degree production. It's a positive sign nonetheless. The number of degrees granted fell again in 2007-08 to 7,406, a decline of about 8 percent from 2006-07, CRA said.
CRA said the fluctuation in CS degrees has occurred in the past. According to the National Science Foundation, between 1980 and 1986, undergraduate CS production nearly quadrupled to more than 42,000 degrees. That period was followed by a swift decline and leveling off during the 1990s, with several years in which the number of degrees granted hovered around 25,000. During the late 1990s, CS degrees surged to more than 57,000 in 2004. This more recent peak has also been followed by a decline and is now leveling off and today's increase in new majors will likely lead to future increases in CS degrees.