Key Takeaways
- Universities are rapidly rolling out new AI degrees, concentrations and requirements.
- Professors are developing AI courses to keep up with demand, from introductory to interdisciplinary options.
- The new offerings show that AI literacy is becoming a baseline expectation for graduates.
College students may boo graduation speakers who positively mention AI, but AI classrooms are overflowing. Everyone from business students to music majors now want to learn how to work with the machines that could impact their careers.
According to a recent report from the Associated Press, hiring has cooled for entry-level software developers as companies hand off more work to AI. Simultaneously, enrollment in computer science college programs has been trending down. Yet on campuses nationwide, professors say they are busier than ever. They are leading packed lectures and workshops for students across majors who want to better understand AI.
Colleges are racing to keep up with this shift in demand. They know that new graduates, no matter what they studied, are now walking into interviews where employers expect them to talk credibly about their AI skills.
One example is Faith Maeba, a 21-year-old psychology major at Virginia Commonwealth University who is entering her final year of college. Maeba’s mother encouraged her to take AI classes, and at first, she was reluctant to add to her course load. However, when she looked into graduate school, she found that AI was changing the field of psychology and that having an understanding of the technology would be useful to further her career. Maeba decided to minor in AI.
“It’s giving me an edge and standing out,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Schools are adapting to AI demand
On the teaching side of things, professors are developing courses to keep up with AI demand. At the University of Texas at Austin, professor Peter Stone, the chair of computer science, recently came up with an introductory course on AI. He designed the course to teach essentials to students in majors outside of computer science.
“We have to democratize it,” Stone told the Associated Press. “In the same way that everybody needs some degree of math, reading and writing, I think everybody needs a degree of AI literacy.”
Meanwhile, at Northwestern University, computer science faculty are so busy teaching AI courses that the department is trying to hire three more professors. The college offers a popular AI minor and recently added an AI major. It is reducing prerequisites so that students can take an AI or machine learning class without majoring in computer science or AI, opening the doors to non-degree students.
Samir Khuller, Northwestern’s chair for computer science, told the Associated Press that “overall, classes are going to be a lot more accessible moving forward.”
Interdisciplinary courses are popular too. At Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a music professor is co-teaching a class next year with a computer science professor. The course will be a haven for musicians and artists as well as computer science majors.
Colleges aren’t just changing their course materials; they are also rebuilding their curriculum around AI. Purdue University now has an AI graduation requirement, meaning students must show that they have AI skills before they get their diplomas. At the same time, at Harvard, professors are weaving AI into freshman writing courses.
Key Takeaways
- Universities are rapidly rolling out new AI degrees, concentrations and requirements.
- Professors are developing AI courses to keep up with demand, from introductory to interdisciplinary options.
- The new offerings show that AI literacy is becoming a baseline expectation for graduates.
College students may boo graduation speakers who positively mention AI, but AI classrooms are overflowing. Everyone from business students to music majors now want to learn how to work with the machines that could impact their careers.
According to a recent report from the Associated Press, hiring has cooled for entry-level software developers as companies hand off more work to AI. Simultaneously, enrollment in computer science college programs has been trending down. Yet on campuses nationwide, professors say they are busier than ever. They are leading packed lectures and workshops for students across majors who want to better understand AI.
Colleges are racing to keep up with this shift in demand. They know that new graduates, no matter what they studied, are now walking into interviews where employers expect them to talk credibly about their AI skills.
