With a Rise in Computing Disciplines Comes a Greater Choice of Computing Degrees in Higher Education

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) internationally are increasingly recognising the importance of understanding student study choices. This is especially true in the field of computing in which skills shortages in the labour market are high but so too are student dropout rates. Loss of interest in the computing field has been reported among the reasons for students dropping out. The aim of this study is to offer a fresh perspective of the factors influencing undergraduate student’s interest and choice of specialisation in computing. Previous studies have mainly focused on five ACM-identified computing disciplines: Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Computer Engineering and Software Engineering. With the ever-growing nature of computing, two more disciplines recently emerged: Cybersecurity and Data Science. HEIs continuously endeavour to expand computing programmes into specialist areas within these disciplines such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, gaming, robotics and creative computing. For prospective students, this maze of options can make for a difficult decision. 137 first-year computing students were invited to participate in a mixed-methods survey to explore their choices around cybersecurity and other newer specialisations. The results of the survey were matched with findings from recent literature, and show that personal interest, family, media, career prospects and prior experiences still influence student choices, with media appearing to have a greater impact compared to earlier studies. HEIs can use this when developing effective recruitment strategies in computing.