How to Increase Computing Student Numbers
I was asked to speak at the SQA Computing Conference at the beginning of this year so I decided to talk about something which had been puzzling me recently. Why are the number of computing students at school dropping in Scotland, when the number of computer science students at university is hugely increasing? And what can we do about it? You can read the slides below to see the full details, but in a nutshell the answer is that universities don’t select entrants to computer science courses based on whether they take computing at school – it’s maths which matters. It really matters though, because we need a greater diversity of people to study computer science and this begins at school. The second part of the presentation focuses on tips for inclusive teaching in computer science which can give everyone positive experiences of the subject before they make their choices for further study at school. Are you a parent or teacher? Why not tweet us @dataschools with your ideas on how we can increase computing student numbers.