Students are choosing different master's programmes than before
As AI reshapes work, students are making calculated bets about which skills will actually matter
Between 2024 and 2025, something unexpected happened: students started choosing humanities and law programmes while interest in computer science dropped nearly 9% (Source: Studyportals). But dig into the data and you’ll find students aren’t rejecting technology entirely. They’re just being extremely selective about tech skills.
AI is the exception to everything
Within computer science, the picture is completely split. Artificial intelligence programmes surged nearly 17%, the strongest growth of any tech subdiscipline. Machine learning climbed nearly 8%.
Everything else is declining hard.
User experience design dropped 21%. Web technologies and cloud computing fell 16%. Software engineering declined 10%. Even cybersecurity slipped slightly.
Students are essentially saying: “We want AI expertise, but we don’t want to be general software developers or web designers.”
Why students are betting on AI
This makes sense if you think about what’s happening in tech. Traditional software development is becoming commoditised, and AI itself is starting to automate parts of coding. But AI expertise requires specialized knowledge that can’t easily be picked up on the job.
Students might also be thinking about job security. If AI is going to automate parts of tech work, better to understand how it actually works than to be in the roles most vulnerable to automation.
The humanities resurgence is real
Meanwhile, law and humanities aren’t just growing by default. Student interest in law jumped 6%, with interest in one-year programmes growing nearly 12%. It seems many students want fast routes into these fields. Humanities grew 6% overall.
Social sciences climbed nearly 4%, now representing about 13% of total interest. Environmental studies grew over 4%. These are subjects about understanding people, societies, and complex systems, which are things that still require human judgment.
What this means
Students aren’t turning away from technical education. They’re betting heavily on AI and machine learning more than fields they see as vulnerable to automation or oversaturation.
At the same time, they’re showing renewed interest in distinctly human domains: law, humanities, social sciences, environmental studies. These are fields where judgment, creativity, and understanding of human nature still matter.
It’s not about STEM versus humanities anymore. It’s about students making calculated decisions about which skills (technical or otherwise) will actually be valuable in a world where AI is changing what work looks like. And they’re being strategic about how what they need to study to get those skills right.
