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Research

Survey Finds Student Interest in Computer Science and AI Falling as Engineering Gains

A Nova Learning survey reported the share of middle and high school students naming computer science and AI as their primary academic interest fell to 27.9% in 2026 from 42.3%, while engineering rose. National data also show CS enrollment declines at four-year institutions.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-23 08:14

Nova Learning said computer science and AI, once the dominant choice among students, is "losing ground fast, while Engineering has nearly doubled its share." The survey is small, but Nova Learning reported that the steepest proportional decline was in Software and Data Science, the most traditional "learn to code" pathway, which lost 44 percent of its 2025 share. AI saw the largest absolute drop of any single subject in the survey, down 6.2 points. The biggest gains came from mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The category did not decline uniformly. Nova Learning said students moved away fastest from the pathway most associated with entry-level software work, while the more applied and human-facing subfields held their ground better. That distinction suggests the shift is not a uniform rejection of technology fields but a change in which parts of technology students find worth pursuing.

Broader enrollment data point in the same direction. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported declines in Computer and Information Science enrollment at four-year institutions, even as engineering grew. Undergraduate enrollment in computer science programs at four-year institutions fell 8.1 percent, to approximately 606,000 students.

AI coding tools have not been proven to be the cause of the decline. But as software development changes and AI handles more coding tasks, students may be starting to rethink what a future in technology should look like. In the Slashdot item, reader BrianFagioli wrote that the survey was small and that the enrollment data do not establish a direct link to AI coding tools.