students exposed to computing as a
discipline on its own or as a first-class
contributor to or enabler of multidisciplinary work. We elaborate on the data
and the causes of declining Canadian
CS enrollment in a separate report. 3
Looking ahead
Canadian universities have reacted to
declining CS enrollment through recruitment programs, a new area for CS,
along with innovative educational programs. These efforts include outreach,
variations on first-year courses, joint
programs with other disciplines, special adaptation to teaching and learning environments, and more focus
on recruiting and retaining students.
However, they have not been sufficient.
Needed still is a concerted and coordinated Canadian national action plan
among the public, private, and education sectors.
An October 2007 IBM Centre for
Advanced Studies conference workshop ( www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/
cascon_main/) provided a brainstorming opportunity for 100 industry partners (organized into 10 groups) from
throughout Canada, federal and provincial government leaders, CS professors and department chairs, and high
school educators. Just as there is no
single explanation for declining enrollment, there is no single remedy. The
workshop identified the responsibilities all participants needed to accept to
restore CS enrollment.
Canada’s 10 provinces and three
territories have constitutional responsibility for education at all levels, while
the federal government focuses on the
national health of industry sectors.
Thus, federal and provincial responses
to boost CS enrollment must differ.
The brainstorming workshop (
morning session) produced a “top 10” list of
directions that might help mitigate the
decline:
˲ Change the high-school curriculum and pedagogy;
˲ Change the university curriculum
and pedagogy;
˲ Use and promote co-op internships
and role models more broadly;
˲ Improve students’ perceptions of
CS as a discipline;
˲ Develop a national advertising and
awareness campaign;
˲ Engage a national society to lobby
all must focus
on changing the
public’s perception
of the industry and
its employment
opportunities
and adapt the
cs curricula to
remain engaging
and relevant for all
canadian students.
Canadian federal and provincial governments and function as a repository
of teaching resources;
˲ Win the commitment of the provincial ministers of education to address
the specific challenges in CS education
at a joint meeting of ministers;
˲ Change university admission policies to recognize CS as a formal part of
the academic high school curriculum;
˲ Recruit and retain more students
in CS ; and
˲ Leverage the interest of high school
and university students already in CS to
develop new and engaging programs.
The afternoon session developed action plans for each item in each sector:
Private sector. The private sector
must promote the demand, availability,
and diversity of employment opportunities. It also must set the standards for
salaries that, in part, fueled the earlier
rush to ICT by some students. These
factors make it the most logical and effective sector to spearhead promotion
of ICT to the public. The private sector
must also help fund the activities that
are needed to promote ICT, requiring
financial, in-kind, and time commitments from industry partners. The private sector also includes the role models most able to demonstrate success
in the ICT sector to which students and
their parents can relate and aspire.
The curricular advice from industry
partners must also emphasize the interest of the ICT sector as a whole rather than as specific to individual companies or specializations. These partners
must help introduce new models of
education that leverage and value the
hands-on experience available through
centers like the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies ( www-927.ibm.com/
ibm/cas/) and the Business Objects (an
SAP company) Advanced Academic Research Centre (labs.businessobjects.
com/arc/).
Public sector. As with the private sector, the public sector must also support the activities that promote ICT,
especially at the federal level, whether
through financial support, in-kind contributions, or information. The federal
government, through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada ( www.nserc.gc.ca/index.
htm) and other research agencies, must
also increase its funding for CS research
to create and sustain dynamic projects