How UT computer science graduates will be paid
A group of UT computer scientists are working on a solution to an ongoing issue that’s hampering the recruitment of computer science graduate students in the state.
According to the UT Department of Computer Science, the number of UT students enrolled in computer science has grown by about 1,200 over the past 10 years.
It’s not clear how many are working in computer technology and whether that number has decreased or increased in the past year.
“We’ve got a lot of computer engineering students, a lot more than computer science students,” said UT computer scientist Jason Daley.
“There’s some things we can do to recruit them, to improve the retention rates.”
Daley, along with fellow UT computer and software engineering graduate student Jaiya Sharma, created a pilot project called the UT Computer Science Program Accelerator Program to improve retention rates among students who were interested in pursuing a degree in computer engineering.
In the pilot project, UT students interested in completing a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science are asked to submit a completed application and pay a $20 application fee.
The program is expected to start in January and run through the end of the year.
In addition to the pilot, the group also is working on another pilot program that will test the retention of computer engineers who have applied for a master’s degree program in computer systems engineering.
According of the pilot program, UT graduates who are accepted into the master’s program will receive an additional $10,000 towards their undergraduate degree.
The money is earmarked to help students graduate from the program in the same year.UT Computer Science graduate student Daley said the pilot effort is a good way to gauge the retention rate of computer scientists at the UT system, since the students are still actively enrolled in the program.
“The pilot project was very helpful in finding out how students feel about it,” he said.
“It showed us a lot about what students want to do with their time, what they want to accomplish in the future, and we’ve seen a lot growth in that area over the last few years.”
Sharma said that although UT has a growing computer engineering student body, retention rates are not the only issue.
“If we can attract students who are interested in a computer science degree, we’ll have a good chance of maintaining the quality of the university,” he added.
Daley said UT has an active computer science recruiting program that focuses on the Computer Science program in particular.
“Our program has about 50 students, which is a pretty good percentage,” he noted.
“Our computer engineering recruiting team has about 20 or so, so it’s pretty steady and it’s been growing over the years.”