The Great Exodus from Computing (and Where the Students Are Going)

Something strange happened this fall on the campuses of the University of California. For the first time since the Internet crash, computer science enrollment fell. System-wide it fell 6% this year after a 3% decline in 2024, according to a report last week from the San Francisco Chronicle. Although the total number of university enrollments climbed 2% nationally — according to January data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — students are opting out of traditional CS degrees.

The only exception is UC San Diego, the only UC campus to add a major dedicated to AI this fall.

This might all seem like a temporary incident related to the announcement of a decrease in the number of CS graduates. find a job after university. But it is rather an indicator of the future, which China is adopting with much more enthusiasm. As MIT’s technology journal reported last JulyChinese universities have leaned heavily into AI culture, viewing it not as a threat but rather as essential infrastructure. Nearly 60% of Chinese students and professors now use AI tools multiple times a day, and schools like Zhejiang University have made AI courses mandatory, while leading institutions like Tsinghua have created entirely new interdisciplinary AI schools. In China, mastering AI is no longer optional; These are table stakes.

American universities are working to catch up. Over the past two years, dozens of people have launched AI-specific programs. MIT’s “AI and Decision Making” specialization is now the second largest major on campus, the school says. As the New York Times reported in December, the University of South Florida enrolled more than 3,000 students in a new school of AI and cybersecurity during his fall semester. The University at Buffalo last summer launched a new “AI and Society” department that offers seven new specialized undergraduate programs, and it received more than 200 candidates before opening its doors.

The transition has not been smooth everywhere. When I spoke with Lee Roberts, chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill in October, he described a spectrum: some teachers are “leaning forward” with AI, others “with their heads in the sand.” Roberts, a former CFO who came from outside academia, was pushing for the integration of AI despite resistance from professors. A week earlier, the UNC announced that it merge two schools create an entity focused on AI – a decision that met with reluctance from professors. Roberts had also appointed a vice provost specifically for AI. “No one is going to tell students after they graduate, ‘Do the best job you can, but if you use AI you’ll be in trouble,'” Roberts told me. “Yet faculty members are saying it right now. »

Parents also play a role in this difficult transition. David Reynaldo, who runs the admissions consulting firm College Zoom, told the Chronicle that parents who once pushed their children toward computer science are now reflexively steering them toward other majors that seem more resistant to AI automation, including mechanical and electrical engineering.

But registration numbers suggest students are voting with their feet. According to a investigation In October, per the nonprofit Computing Research Association — whose members include computer science and computer engineering departments at a wide range of universities — 62 percent of respondents said their computer science programs saw undergraduate enrollment decline this fall. But with the rise of AI programs, it seems less like a technological exodus and more like a migration. The University of Southern California is launch a diploma in AI this next fall; so are Columbia University, Pace UniversityAnd New Mexico State Universityamong many others. Students are not abandoning technology; instead, they choose AI-focused programs.

It’s too early to tell whether this recalibration is permanent or a temporary panic. But it’s certainly a wake-up call for administrators who have spent years wondering how to handle AI in the classroom. The debate over whether to ban ChatGPT is ancient history at this point. The question now is whether American universities can move fast enough or whether they will continue to argue over what to do while students transfer to schools that already have answers.