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Assessing and Responding to the Growth of Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments (2018) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 147-156

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From page 147...
... Furthermore, with the changing role of computing in society and the rapid evolution of computing fields and technologies, the committee sees both an urgent need and an opportunity to strategically evaluate the role of computing at academic institutions and to plan for a compelling future where student, departmental, institutional, and national needs can be met. To this end, the committee makes the following recommendations: RECOMMENDATION 1: The leaders of the institutions of higher education that have experienced rapid increases in computer science course enrollments should take deliberate actions to address this trend with a sense of urgency.
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From page 148...
... At the same time, institutions need to recognize the challenge computer science departments face in hiring qualified tenure and tenure-track faculty and teaching faculty, and the vast opportunities for such individuals in the private sector. When faculty hiring is not possible, resources would make a difference to enable hiring of undergraduate or graduate students or staff to increase instructional capacity and help manage large course and advising loads.
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From page 149...
... RECOMMENDATION 2.3: Institutional leadership should engage directly with computer science departments or programs to develop appropriate faculty hiring and faculty size targets, and develop strategies to improve faculty retention. Increasing the number and enhancing the role of academic-rank teaching faculty should be given serious consideration.
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From page 150...
... This includes providing professional development as well as integrating teaching faculty into departmental faculty activities, defining the expected scholarship and leadership activities, and defining best practices for their success. RECOMMENDATION 2.4: Larger institutions -- in particular, re search universities -- should reevaluate the organizational placement of the computer science department and other departmental units with a computational mission.
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From page 151...
... can be especially helpful in advancing undergraduate computer science education in the context of increasing enrollments, for both majors and non-majors. The following actions should receive seri ous consideration: RECOMMENDATION 4.1: Use NSF's convening power to bring computer science faculty and institutional leaders together to iden tify best practices and innovation in computer science education in times of limited departmental resources.
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From page 152...
... RECOMMENDATION 5: Computer science departments and the computing industry should develop new partnerships to help higher education meet workforce needs, continue to graduate well-­ prepared students, encourage industry to provide increased support for research funding, and allow a better exchange of Ph.D.-level r ­ esearchers between academia and industry. Academic institutions should pursue new partnerships with industry and to enable CS professionals in the private sector with academic experience to pursue an academic leave.
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From page 153...
... RECOMMENDATION 8.2: The taxonomies and classifications for undergraduate computing degrees and jobs should be reexamined and updated, so that those used in national statistics are more easily brought into alignment, and map more directly to the current orga nization of computer science and related fields in higher education.
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From page 154...
... This would make it much easier to correlate undergraduate degree production with labor market trends, and to assess emerging trends in the landscape of computing. RECOMMENDATION 8.3: In the absence of comprehensive national statistics, the computer science community, in collaboration with edu cation, social sciences, and statistics researchers, should continue to pursue or refine effective strategies for tracking enrollment, retention, and graduation rates and measuring student diversity.
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From page 155...
... experts in survey design. The availability of such data in a timely fashion would be invaluable for informing academic institutions and federal agencies of current trends, and enabling these actors to make informed deci­ ions in a reasonable time frame.
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Key Terms

  • degree production
  • course enrollments
  • underrepresented minorities
  • faculty hiring
  • science departments

  • science education
  • undergraduate computing
  • science enrollment
  • puter science
  • faculty retention

  • computing education
  • enrollment growth
  • graduation rates
  • computing skills
  • degree programs

  • related fields
  • representative data
  • retired faculty
  • improve faculty
  • science courses

  • impact faculty
  • science skills
  • science community
  • trained faculty
  • domestic computer

  • faculty size
  • junior faculty
  • departmental faculty
  • science department
  • faculty research


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