Something strange happened at University of California campuses this fall. For the first time since the dot-com crash, computer science enrollment dropped. System-wide, it fell6% this yearafter declining 3% in 2024, according to reporting this past week by the San Francisco Chronicle. Even as overall college enrollmentclimbed 2% nationally— according to January data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — students are bailing on traditional CS degrees.
The one exception is UC San Diego — the only UC campus that added adedicated AI major this fall.
The transition hasn’t been smooth everywhere. When I spoke withUNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Robertsin October, he described a spectrum — some faculty “leaning forward” with AI, others with “their heads in the sand.” Roberts, a former finance executive who arrived from outside academia, was pushing hard for AI integration despite faculty resistance. A week earlier, UNC had announced it wouldmerge two schoolsto create an AI-focused entity — a decision that drew faculty pushback. Roberts had also appointed a vice provost specifically for AI. “No one’s going to say to students after they graduate, ‘Do the best job you can, but if you use AI, you’ll be in trouble,’” Roberts told me. “Yet we have faculty members effectively saying that right now.”
Parents are playing a role in this rocky transition, too. David Reynaldo, who runs the admissions consultancy College Zoom, told the Chronicle that parents who once pushed kids toward CS are now reflexively steering them toward other majors that seem more resistant to AI automation, including mechanical and electrical engineering.
But the enrollment numbers suggest students are voting with their feet. According to asurveyin October by the nonprofit Computing Research Association — it members include computer science and computer engineering departments from a wide range 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 islaunching an AI degreethis coming fall; so areColumbia University,Pace University, andNew Mexico State University, among many others. Students aren’t abandoning tech; they’re choosing programs focused on AI instead.
It’s too soon to say whether this recalibration is permanent or a temporary panic. But it’s certainly a wake-up call for administrators who’ve spent years wrestling with how to handle AI in the classroom. The debate over whether to ban ChatGPT is ancient history at this point. The question now is whether American universities can move fast enough or whether they’ll keep arguing about what to do while students transfer to schools that already have answers.
Source: Techcrunch
