Something strange happened at University of California campuses this fall. For the primary time for the reason that dot-com crash, computer science enrollment dropped. System-wide, it fell 6% this yr after declining 3% in 2024, in keeping with reporting this past week by the San Francisco Chronicle. Whilst overall college enrollment climbed 2% nationally — in keeping with January data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — students are bailing on traditional CS degrees.
The one exception is UC San Diego — the one UC campus that added a dedicated AI major this fall.
This all might appear to be a brief blip tied to news about fewer CS grads finding work out of faculty. However it’s more likely an indicator of the long run, one which China is far more enthusiastically embracing. As MIT Technology Review reported last July, Chinese universities have leaned hard into AI literacy, treating AI not as a threat but as an alternative as essential infrastructure. Nearly 60% of Chinese students and college now use AI tools multiple times day by day, and schools like Zhejiang University have made AI coursework mandatory, while top institutions like Tsinghua have created entirely latest interdisciplinary AI colleges. In China, fluency with AI isn’t optional anymore; it’s table stakes.
U.S. universities are scrambling to catch up. During the last two years, dozens have launched AI-specific programs. MIT’s “AI and decision-making” major is now the second-largest major on campus, says the varsity. As reported by the Latest York Times in December, the University of South Florida enrolled greater than 3,000 students in a latest AI and cybersecurity college during its fall semester. The University at Buffalo last summer launched a brand new “AI and Society” department that gives seven latest, specialized undergraduate degree programs, and it received greater than 200 applicants before it swung open its doors.
The transition hasn’t been smooth all over the place. Once I spoke with UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts in October, he described a spectrum — some faculty “leaning forward” with AI, others with “their heads within the sand.” Roberts, a former finance executive who arrived from outside academia, was pushing hard for AI integration despite faculty resistance. Per week earlier, UNC had announced it will merge two schools to create an AI-focused entity — a choice that drew faculty pushback. Roberts had also appointed a vice provost specifically for AI. “Nobody’s going to say to students after they graduate, ‘Do the most effective job you possibly can, but in the event you use AI, you’ll be in trouble,’” Roberts told me. “Yet we now have faculty members effectively saying that without delay.”
Parents are playing a task on this rocky transition, too. David Reynaldo, who runs the admissions consultancy College Zoom, told the Chronicle that folks who once pushed kids toward CS are actually reflexively steering them toward other majors that appear more proof against AI automation, including mechanical and electrical engineering.
However the enrollment numbers suggest students are voting with their feet. In accordance with a survey in October by the nonprofit Computing Research Association — it members include computer science and computer engineering departments from a wide selection of universities — 62% of respondents reported that their computing programs saw undergraduate enrollment declines this fall. But with AI programs ballooning, it’s looking less like a tech exodus and more like a migration. The University of Southern California is launching an AI degree this coming fall; so are Columbia University, Pace University, and Latest Mexico State University, amongst many others. Students aren’t abandoning tech; they’re selecting programs focused on AI as an alternative.
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It’s too soon to say whether this recalibration is everlasting or a brief panic. However it’s definitely a wake-up call for administrators who’ve spent years wrestling with tips on how to handle AI within the classroom. The controversy over whether to ban ChatGPT is ancient history at this point. The query now is whether or not American universities can move fast enough or whether or not they’ll keep arguing about what to do while students transfer to varsities that have already got answers.