Computer Science, Engineering Subject of CRA Survey

Enrollment in graduate-level computer science and computer engineering (CS&CE) programs continued to grow in 2000-01 as the number of new undergraduates majoring in CS&CE declined, according to a survey released earlier this year by the Computing Research Association (CRA).

The annual CRA Taulbee Survey of Ph.D.-granting CS&CE departments in the U.S. and Canada discusses trends in enrollment, production, and employment of Ph.D. degrees in CS&CE and provides salary and demographic data for faculty in CS&CE. Except for faculty salary information, which is presented for the current year, data are given for the preceding academic year.

The 31st Taulbee Survey reveals the number who entered Ph.D. programs in Fall 2001 increased from 2,062 to 2,702 (31 percent). Meanwhile, those who passed qualifiers increased from 1,119 to 1,244 (11 percent), and those who passed their thesis proposal exams increased from 788 to 917 (16 percent). Total Ph.D. enrollments increased from 7,857 to 8,810 (12 percent) in 2001.

Newly declared CS&CE undergraduate majors experienced a decline, however. Taulbee Survey data show the number of new undergraduates decreased by nearly 1 percent, from 23,416 to 23,090.

"Perhaps the decline in the technology industry is making computer science and engineering less alluring to new undergraduates," the authors say. "In addition, some programs may be operating in 'saturation' mode, where they simply cannot accept more undergraduate majors given their teaching resources."

Other survey highlights include:

• Slightly more Ph.D. degrees were granted in 2001 than in the previous academic year. The 912 Ph.D. degrees awarded in 2001 by the 173 responding departments reflects a 4 percent increase over the previous year's total, 881, which was the lowest number in more than 10 years.
• Master's degrees were awarded to 8,266 students, an increase of 26 percent. Bachelor’s degrees numbered 17,048, an increase of 15 percent. And,
• Average salaries increased by 5 percent to 7 percent for different categories of faculty, similar to the previous year.

CRA is comprised of more than 200 North American organizations active in computing research. The Taulbee Survey is named after the late Orrin E. Taulbee of the University of Pittsburgh, who conducted the survey from 1974 to 1984 for the Computer Science Board, which was the predecessor organization to CRA. Final survey results are provided in each March issue of Computing Research News, a newsletter published five times a year by CRA.

The 31st Taulbee Survey is available at: http://www.cra.org/statistics/