CRA Bulletin

NB: See also this bulletin item.

Interest in computer science (CS) or computer engineering (CE) as a major among incoming freshmen at all undergraduate institutions fell between 2004 and 2005, according to survey results from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (HERI/UCLA).

After peaking in 1999 and 2000, interest in CS as a major has fallen in each of the past five years. All in all, interest has dropped 70 percent over this period. In the Fall of 2005, 1.1 percent of incoming freshmen indicated CS as their probable major, down slightly from 1.4 percent in 2004. The last time that interest in CS dropped this rapidly, during the early 1980s, CS degree production dropped by a third in five years. Although production might not fall as much again, results from this year’s Taulbee Survey of PhD-granting CS departments will show a double-digit drop in the number of CS bachelor’s degrees granted in 2004/2005. (These numbers will be released March 1).

Interest in CE has been tracked only since 2002, and has fallen every year since then. In the Fall of 2005, 1.2 percent of incoming freshmen indicated CE as their probable major.

More information about the survey, including the rapid drop in interest in CS among women, can be found at http://www.cra.org/CRN/articles/may05/vegso