Dive Brief:
- With an increasing need for skilled workers in STEM fields, eCampus News suggests colleges and universities focus on boosting the relevance of curricula by incorporating coursework in data science/data administration, IT management and network administration and cybersecurity management/security engineering.
- The publication singled out these fields of study based on data from Glassdoor, Career Builder, Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. and education sector research.
- Billed as "future-proof," these fields are said to have a high number of available jobs, competitive salaries, and a horizontal spread across a variety of industries.
Dive Insight:
The fields listed by eCampus News are rising in demand and will only become more important in an increasingly tech-dependent world. It's also noteworthy that the publication suggests boosting existing curricula with coursework in those fields, as opposed to funneling students into programs specifically focused on them. The potential outcome of that effort is two-fold: Students will have even more marketable skills regardless of their chosen field of study, and it would expose more students — particularly females and students of color — who may not have considered any coursework in those STEM fields. If they find in a gen-ed course that they have a passion or talent that suits that field, they may end up switching to a specfici program regardless.
This is particularly noteworthy for liberal arts colleges, which have contended that a well-rounded education enables students to pivot with changes in the job market, whereas focusing on a specific skill currently in demand isn't ultimately ideal when that skill is no longer relevant.