Career choice: Computer science

Head of the project:

Stefan Engeser, Nina Limbert & Hugo M. Kehr

Project collaborators:

Martin Augustin, Franziska Lindlacher & Ernesto Vanoni

Description of the project:

In spite of its increasing importance only a too small number of high school graduates choose informatics as their university subject. A broad investigation was carried out to understand their decision pro or contra studying informatics. More than 600 students and high school graduates filled out questionnaires about their motivation about their choice of subject of study accompanied with a small number of interviews. The results about the motivation for their choice of subject of study and about their disposition to college dropouts are presented. On this basis conclusions are drawn how more students might be attracted for informatics as their subject of study. This shows that not only their actual success or failure determines the students’ disposition to college dropouts but also additional factors.

Promoted by:

Ernst Denert Stiftung für Software-Engineering; in Zusammenarbeit mit Prof. Manfred Broy.