Cara Skikne
12 months ago
Universities must respond to the increasing importance of AI
The demand for degree courses in AI-related fields is surging. Adapting to this anticipated growth will likely be a challenge for many educational institutions across the globe.
Mark Ovens, Senior Partnerships Director at Studyportals says, “Whilst demand for Higher Education continues to accelerate in this pandemic rebound period, it is vital that Universities safeguard and future proof their international recruitment strategies by being informed by data trends on the intentions of their potential future students.
Higher education professionals should be aware of where the strongest demand for AI education is coming from, as well as where the most AI courses are being offered.
The latest report from Studyportals can give universities an idea of the future growth potential of AI.
Mismatch between supply and demand for AI courses
Unsurprisingly, demand for degree courses in AI-related fields is surging. Adapting to this anticipated growth will likely be a challenge for many educational institutions across the globe.
As the buzz around Artificial Intelligence applications like Chat GPT becomes louder, demand for AI degree programmes is outstripping supply.
There is 3.4 times as much interest in Artificial Intelligence courses on Studyportals as there are programmes currently available.
Student interest for Artificial Intelligence programmes on Studyportals (expressed as pageviews) grew 305% from January 2018 to January 2023.That compares to a 25% increase in pageviews across all programmes.
Meanwhile, programmes for Artificial Intelligence on Studyportals rose 174% between January 2018 and January 2023.That compares to 31% average growth across all progammes on Studyportals.
It is interesting to note that nearly half of all Master’s programme in AI are supplied by the UK (27.6%) and US (18.8%). The UK and US also supply nearly two thirds of all Bachelor’s programmes related to AI (31.9% and 31.1% of supply respectively).
AI-related fields
AI programmes are also attached to other disciplinary fields outside of Computer Science. Universities can look at combining AI programmes with other disciplinary fields to ensure their institutions appeal to the varying, even possibly niche, interests of prospective students.
Serusha Govender, Science and technology journalist, multimedia producer and metaverse researcher says there are some unexpected opportunities for universities willing to think outside the box, “There is also a rising demand for cognitive science students that have studied how AI systems can be designed to mimic the human brain. There is also a need for linguistic specialists who can adapt their skills to working with AI systems like natural language processing (NLP) which require a deep understanding of human language structure and use. Even philosophy graduates who focus on the ethical and social implications of AI are increasing needed as these technologies become more prevalent in society.
“In reality, so many more opportunities could be created to indirectly meet this demand as AI itself is fast-evolving and rapidly expanding to new areas. Universities that are able to build more holistic, adaptive approaches into their current degrees can arm promising, multi-skilled graduates with the ability to repurpose their skills into multiple career avenues to pursue successful careers in the AI sector (or even in the broader workforce).”
An exciting moment for universities
Dr Sven Schütt, CEO at IUgroup says the rapid and unprecedented disruption of LLM technology has has far-reaching implications for both how people learn and what they need to learn.
At IU International University, we have anticipated this shift by integrating AI electives into all our programs. In addition, we offer a large portfolio in AI, robotics and Data science which is why we are the largest degree educator in this field in Europe with over 2,500 students choosing us in 2022.
“As part of our commitment to the broader transformation of the economy, we will significantly expand our AI-focused course offerings in the next 12 months, covering all key functions and sectors with combined degrees such as AI in Marketing, AI in automative etc. This exciting moment in time allows us to work towards our mission to empower people with future skills in the most personalized way, ensuring our students are well-equipped to thrive in this world of evolving AGI.”
In order to respond to the increasing importance of AI, Universities should consider:
- Offering new specialised degrees and courses catering for the high-demand, and innovation-driven jobs of the future.
- Restructuring current prospectuses to afford graduates opportunities to pursue successful careers using their knowledge more broadly.
- Combining AI programmes with other disciplinary fields to ensure their institutions appeals to the varying, even possibly niche, interests of prospective students.
- Partnering with industry leaders to provide students with hands-on experience in the field through internships and research opportunities.
- Using data to identify trends, offer the right courses and find the right students.
- Communicating what makes your institution’s AI programmes unique and attractive to students.
