The number of students starting dedicated degrees in AI at UK universities rose by 42% this year, according to new research.
The number of students starting dedicated degrees in AI at UK universities rose by 42% this year, according to new research.
A record 1,165 UK students started undergraduate degrees in AI this September. But they still make up only 4% of all full-time computing students, according to annual analysis by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.
Larger courses like computer science, software engineering, and computer games and animation account for majority of the 31,670 total computing first-year starters.
This is the second highest number on record, despite numbers declining 3% compared to 2024.
The gap between men and women taking computing degrees, of all kinds, is the smallest it has ever been this year, at 4:1. That gap was as big as five and a half men to every woman, back in 2019/20.
Half of computing students accepted through UCAS, which published the data, are from less advantaged backgrounds, compared to 41% of all students.
The Nobel Prizes for physics and chemistry in October 2024 went to computer scientists working in AI, Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis; the time when UK students begin to consider university choices ahead of the main January 2025 UCAS deadline.
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The AI Opportunities Action Plan, commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) says that ‘increasing [universities’] teaching and recruitment capacity would help train the tens of thousands of AI professionals needed by 2030.’
Julia Adamson MBE, Executive Director for Education and Public Benefit at BCS said: 'While it’s important and exciting to see specialised AI degrees growing in popularity, numbers are relatively small, compared to Computing courses overall.
'The UK’s strategy to become a global AI leader will rely on growing the pipeline of university graduates in a range of related subjects along with digital apprenticeships and other professional development courses in tech.
'It’s also true that people with degrees other than computing, including Maths, will look to enter AI through the postgraduate conversion route, like Google DeepMind’s Research Ready programme.
'We’re talking to government, computing teachers in our community, universities and industry about the likely factors driving Computing subject trends. That includes looking at the current market for entry level developer roles, at whether AI has shifted perceptions of tech careers, the role of big tech and geopolitics, and the influences on subject choices early in education.'
