Doi: 10.1145/1400181.1400199
quantitative extent of the enrollment decrease and personally interviewed many CS department chairs and senior university administrators to learn their views on the causes of the decline. Each university meeting we conducted began
By JacoB sLonim, sam scuLLy, anD michaeL mcaLListeR with a report on the enrollment decrease for that university, a discussion structured around three basic questions:
crossroads ˲ What is the reason for the decline in your university’s CS enrollment?;
˲ How well prepared are the students entering CS in your university?; and
for canadian ˲ What actions, if any, is your university taking to mitigate the decrease in enrollment?
We followed with a discussion re-
cs enrollment garding the personal views of the interview participants about the decline in enrollment.
We interviewed universities until all regions in Canada were represented and the interviews became repetitive as to the information they were able to disclose.
We also interviewed five large industry partners—Business Objects, CIO of Quebec, IBM, Research In Motion, and SG1—for their views on the state of the Canadian ICT sector; the interviews were secured through a list we obtained from Industry Canada as the sponsor of the study. We asked the industry partners whether they are seeing any shortage in the ICT labor market that might be attributed to the enrollment decline and whether they had plans to outsource work as a result. An open discussion again followed the questions.
More important than explanations of past enrollment decreases is the design and articulation of initiatives that might reverse the trend. If the decline is cyclic (see Figure 1), as some of our colleagues in a number of North American universities suggest, then taking immediate steps to reengage students in CS can shorten the duration of the current trough, hasten recovery, and lessen the depth and impact of future troughs. If the decline is not cyclic, as we believe it is, then action (such as inclusion of the societal impact of computing, promotion of the discipline, and reexamina-
THE DECLINE IN computer science enrollment in practically all Canadian universities has resulted in a shortage of technical graduates that in turn jeopardizes the ability of the Canadian information and communication technology (ICT) sector to remain vibrant, innovative, and competitive in the global economy. The sector’s anticipated wave of retirements will exacerbate the situation in the next five to 10 years. With upward of 30% of Canada’s GDP directly or indirectly involving ICT, university CS educators must rejuvenate the discipline and rethink the country’s long-range strategy to teaching CS to ensure continual renewal of the ICT work force. While some preliminary signs indicate that enrollment levels in 2007–2008 are stabilizing, the public, private, and education sectors must coordinate their approaches to ICT recruiting, training, and development to achieve the required renewal.
We collected CS enrollment data (1999–2007) for most Canadian universities to determine the
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