Future Growth Of Software Engineering Baccalaureate Programs In The United States

Despite the large current number of software engineering professionals in the United States, as well as projections that it is one of the largest-growing fields in the nation for the current decade, growth in the number of Bachelor’s degree programs in the United States has recently declined. There are currently only about thirty schools in the United States that offer a baccalaureate degree in software engineering (including several online programs), without many more in sight. This paper looks at the growth and development of the Bachelor’s degree programs in software engineering in the United States, possible causes for the paucity of new programs, and what this might mean for the future. Included is a survey of software engineering educators in programs which do not currently have a Bachelor’s degree program in software engineering, as well as comparisons with other computing fields when they were in similar stages of development.