To our Head of Studies, Uffe Kjærulff, the fact that the total number of new students is the second-highest ever is very satisfactory and a sign that the programmes offered by our department are indeed attractive to young people seeking an education within computer science.
The intake on the Software programme is at an all-time high with 178 new students in Aalborg and 55 in Copenhagen. Data Science welcomes 22 new students, which is an increase of four compared to 2020. In contrast, according to Uffe, the numbers for the other programmes reveal slightly worrying tendencies:
- The intake on Computer Science, which is a core programme and also the oldest one at our department, sees a decline for the second consecutive year. It is the same trend at the other Danish universities, and there may be a number of reasons for this like increased competition from programmes within other areas like software and robotics.
A NATIONAL ISSUE
At a national level, there is a 25 per cent decrease in the intake on the Computer Science programmes, a trend that, according to Uffe, should also be addressed at a national level:
- It is important that this issue is addressed in a common effort. This could, for example, be done in a forum of heads of CS departments and under the auspices of the Future People project, which is aimed at attracting young people to Computer Science programmes.
The intake on the Interaction Design programme has also decreased, and quite dramatically with only 20 new students compared to 45 last year.
- There is no obvious explanation for the decrease, so we need to investigate the issue further in order to address it going forward, says Uffe.
GENDER DISTRIBUTION UNCHANGED
Just above 200 of our bachelor students have chosen to continue on one of the six master´s degree programmes, which equals the number last year. Again, the undisputed top scorer is Software with just under 100 new students.
With 10 percent new female students on the bachelor degree programmes, there is no change compared to last year gender-wise. The gender distribution is significantly less skewed on the multi-disciplinary programmes and on programmes with a clear usage-oriented focus. There is a slight increase from 10 to 12 percent women on the master’s degree programmes.