College computer science enrollments drop as AI education moves beyond CS departments

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show that undergraduate enrollment in computer and information sciences at four-year institutions slipped 8.4% in spring 2026, after a 3.6% decline in fall 2025, while graduate enrollment fell 14% over the same period. Experts suggest students remain interested in technology but are choosing to blend technical skills with other fields. Colby College’s Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, founded with a $30 million gift, runs interdisciplinary programs that teach AI fundamentals and ethics to students from dozens of majors, producing projects such as bias-free hiring tools and AI-assisted legal citation aids.

The University of Florida now offers more than 200 AI-related courses to 14,000 students annually, and Ohio State University has launched an AI fluency initiative for the class of 2029. These moves reflect a broader shift toward integrating AI education across curricula as the traditional computer-science pipeline contracts. Nonetheless, faculty like David Watts stress that coding expertise will still be essential for future engineers.