CRA Releases Report on Surge in Computer Science Enrollments

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Some highlights: 

"Across the United States and Canada, universities and colleges are facing a significant increase in enrollment in both 
undergraduate computer science (CS) courses and programs. The current enrollment surge has exceeded previous CS booms, 
and there is a general sense that the current growth in enrollment is substantially different than that of the 
mid-1980s and late 1990s.”

"The enrollment growth in the mid-1980s is sometimes referred to as the “PC boom” and the enrollment growth in the late 
1990s is sometimes referred to as the “dot-com boom.” CRA Snowbird Conference attendees suggest that we are currently 
in “Generation CS,” where CS enrollment across the nation is surging due to the pervasiveness of computing in today’s 
society. Computing plays a significant role in daily life, and students with interests in a variety of fields are 
beginning to understand that training in computer science is vital.”

"Many units face increased faculty retention problems, are not able to hire teaching faculty into newly created 
teaching positions, and realize that there are not enough new PhDs to fill open faculty slots in the targeted areas.”

"A positive consequence of the current enrollment surge is a significant increase in the number of women and 
underrepresented minority (URM) students in computer science, both in courses and as majors. In addition, there is also 
some good news in regard to the percentage of women and URM students in aggregate; the good news, however, is not 
universal across all units1 surveyed.”

"Current pressures on computer science units are extremely difficult to manage and will also intensify if enrollments 
continue to grow. Institutional administrators need to work with computer science units to find sustainable approaches 
to meet the student demand…”

"Given the available data on job postings, Ph.D. production, and the insufficient number of new Ph.D.s pursuing 
academic positions, units may not be able to hire faculty members as planned. In addition, units may face increased 
faculty retention problems.”


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