contributed articles
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-
What should be done to reverse
falling CS enrollment in the Canadian
education system?
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
