{"id":314469,"date":"2026-10-26T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T11:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314469\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T11:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T11:32:12","slug":"school-of-computing-and-information-undergraduate-enrollment-falls-sharply-while-ai-shakes-up-the-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/314469\/","title":{"rendered":"School of Computing and Information undergraduate enrollment falls sharply while AI shakes up the job market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undergraduate enrollment at Pitt\u2019s School of Computing and Information dropped 18 percentage points within the past year, according to the annual student census<\/a> released in early October.<\/p>\n

In particular, first-year undergraduate enrollment decreased from 310 to 143 from 2025 to 2026, according to additional data provided by a University spokesperson. Faculty and students in SCI said the decreases are partly due to labor market changes caused by the rising capabilities of artificial intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adriana Kovashka, chair of the computer science department situated within SCI and an associate professor, explained that computer science and its related areas are undergoing a labor market change for multiple reasons, including a record high employment of computing professionals from 2022 to 2023 and the \u201cgreat leaps in AI\u201d over the last couple years affecting the kind of knowledge, skills and experience that employers most need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese reasons have led to a job market correction,\u201d Kovashka said. \u201cThis correction is shifting entry-level employment needs away from traditional roles that focus on routine software development to the orchestration of AI and practical experience in applying AI. This shift has affected student interest and beliefs as reflected in national enrollment trends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kovashka referenced a report<\/a> from the Computing Research Association<\/a> showing that in fall 2025, 62% of computing academic units saw enrollment declines.<\/p>\n

Kovashka believes the profession is \u201crobust,\u201d yet the bar is \u201chigher than before,\u201d requiring students to have more experience and specialization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies are having trouble finding enough qualified applicants, partly because applicants do not have real-world work experience and are not prepared to integrate AI in business workflows in an effective manner,\u201d she said. \u201cThe skills and experiences that employers look for in applicants has evolved while hiring has tightened for those that do not have those skills and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shreyash Ranjan, a senior computer science major and former president of the computer science club, said there were 244 students in attendance for the first general meeting in 2025 and 137 students at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

Ranjan believes with AI continuously changing, educational institutions are having a hard time catching up to new information, techniques and skills. He said it\u2019s already too late for schools to just be teaching the foundational aspect of AI, adding that this \u201cisn\u2019t necessarily the right direction to go\u201d since researchers are so far past the foundation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cModels are already so good, so there\u2019s no need to necessarily go into that. What we can do is the application side of things whatever that might be, like making ChatGPT better and Claude better [in application],\u201d Ranjan said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to work too much on the underground kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the last 50 years, computing and information science demand has gone through multiple up and down cycles<\/a>, according to Kovashka and SCI teaching professor Michael Miller Yoder. In interviews, they both referenced the 1990s dot-com bubble,<\/a> which saw an unprecedented growth of technology followed by collapse in the early 2000s<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the COVID-19 pandemic which brought with it a rising demand for digital technology,\u00a0 employment of computing professionals reached a high<\/a>. Yoder said technology fields follow this \u201cpattern\u201d of high and low demand when economic shifts such as the dot-com bubble, 2008 recession and the pandemic occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts<\/a> a faster overall growth in most computer and information technology professions from 2025 to 2035 compared to the average of all occupations. Projections include a 10% growth in software developing, 21% in information security and 22% in computer and information research science. On the other hand, the BLS predicts a 7% dwindle in computer programming jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kovashka said programming and computer support services are more at risk, which is partly driven by AI taking on routine programming and service support tasks.<\/p>\n

Kovashka said the decrease in SCI enrollment brought a reduction in the number of sections for some core, foundational courses. However, Kovashka said, more work-relevant elective courses are popular and have not seen a significant reduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yoder explained monitoring all the new information or updates on AI is a challenge, though he said he does his best to keep updating the curriculum and wants to prepare students for what employers are looking for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to prioritize sometimes, with some of the old stuff that I need to get rid of versus what\u2019s foundational and important, what of the new stuff is just a passing fad, or a hype thing that\u2019s not going to be around in a couple of years,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n

Ranjan explained that those studying computer science are readjusting by specializing or stepping into a majors less susceptible to disruption from AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing from friends is that they want to go into something where it\u2019s going to be harder to replace, so it\u2019s going to be like electric engineering or computer engineering, where it\u2019s more physical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ranjan said despite how \u201cscary\u201d the field of computer science may be right now, there is a lot of effort to \u201cpush the field as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one really good thing about majoring in CS is it\u2019s always changing. You shouldn\u2019t ever get bored in this field,\u201d Ranjan said. \u201cThere are some fields out there that don\u2019t move nearly as fast as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undergraduate enrollment at Pitt\u2019s School of Computing and Information dropped 18 percentage points within the past year, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-314469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}