Posted by : Anonymous on Aug 10, 2004 - 05:31 PM General

Tech firms might be rebounding from the dot-com bust, but enrollment in college computer programs keeps falling. San Jose State University in Silicon Valley enrolled 417 full-time computer science undergraduates for the fall semester, down from 525 last year. The University of Texas at Austin expects about 1,275, down from 1,465 a year ago. The University of Notre Dame should have 50 -- better than last year, but down from 60 at the peak. Ohio State University is down 30%.

Nationwide data aren't available. However, last year, the number of newly declared computer science and computer engineering majors in the USA and Canada fell 23% vs. the year before, says the Computing Research Association, a college trade group. The figures aren't expected to improve this year.

Blame the bleak tech job market. In the past, a computer degree meant ''instant riches, or at least a well-paying, secure job,'' says San Jose computer science chair David Hayes. ''Now, the perception is jobs are going overseas, and people are being laid off.''

Students are now trying biology, nursing or other majors.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, says Peter Lee, an associate dean at Carnegie Mellon. His elite undergraduate program received 2,000 applicants this year, compared with 3,200 at the height of the boom. But the students are often of higher quality, motivated more by love of technology than dreams of stock options, he says.

Still, many educators worry there won't be enough workers when the industry rebounds, crimping growth. Matthew Szulik, CEO of software firm Red Hat, says he's having trouble finding some highly skilled programmers. The USA grants only about 6% of the world's engineering degrees, behind China, the European Union, Japan, Russia and India, says the National Science Foundation and tech trade group AEA.

Graduate programs haven't seen the same decline yet. ''One place you go when you can't get a job is back to school,'' says computer science professor Warren Hunt at the University of Texas.

But that might change. Many U.S. graduate programs rely on foreign students who come here to study. In the USA and Canada, 43% of computer science and engineering recipients are non-resident aliens, the CRA says.

New security regulations might be keeping these students from applying. In India, the number of students taking the Graduate Record Exam, the test required for most applicants to U.S. graduate schools, fell 56% this school year, vs. last, test administrators say. In China, test-taking fell 52%.