The U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) provides national-level data on postsecondary education, including enrollment counts, graduation counts, and detailed disaggregations. In this snapshot series, we use IPEDS and select other data sources to complement existing CSET work on the United States’ national workforce readiness for careers in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies.

This first snapshot examines colleges and universities’ graduation totals from the past five years to assess which universities are graduating high numbers of students in AI-related fields where data is available. We consider computer science and derivatives (e.g., “Mathematics and Computer Science”), bioinformatics, computer and electrical engineering, nanotechnology, and cybersecurity to be AI-related majors (defined by CIP codes from the National Center for Education Statistics).¹ In addition, we include new majors added to IPEDS after 2020, which contain a swath of data science and human-computer interaction majors that were likely previously consolidated across other degrees like computer science or mathematics.²

 College majors are a limited signal—for example, a sociology student with experience in building quantitative models using programming languages may be better prepared for a career in AI than an analytics student focused on using spreadsheet and data visualization tools. Nonetheless, preparation in computational and quantitative fields related to technologies are a step towards building an AI-ready workforce.

We also examine whether U.S. universities conferred more AI-related degrees over time, exploring trends in AI-related fields at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Then, we list the top 10 AI-related degree-conferring colleges and universities at the three degree levels. We include notable statistics on the top 25 institutions at their respective degree levels. Note that we refer to “top X” programs by number of degrees conferred, not quality.

Growth in All AI-Related Degrees over Time

Nationally, degree conferrals in AI-related fields have increased steadily at approximately 5 percent annually since 2010. These upward trends may result from widespread interest in AI- and STEM-related topics. There is also evidence of grade inflation: the phenomenon of colleges relaxing course requirements to facilitate higher graduation rates and GPAs. Grade inflation may have contributed to increased graduation rates.³

Note that these growth trends in AI-related degrees are in direct, stark contrast to overall degree trends. At the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, growth in total annual conferrals for all degrees is slow or even negative; at all degree levels, average annual growth has been under 2 percent since 2011. We also examined STEM degree trends over time. STEM degree conferrals grew faster than general degree ones over the past decade, but AI-related degree conferrals grew even faster than STEM at all three degree levels.⁴ In particular, undergraduate and master’s level STEM degree conferrals have increased substantially, with STEM master’s degree conferrals more than doubling since 2011 and STEM bachelor’s degree conferrals increasing over 70 percent since 2011. This growth persisted despite the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020. Below, we visualize annual trends in overall degree conferrals and STEM degree conferrals.

Figure 1. Growth in STEM-Related and Overall Degree Conferrals over Time

AI-related degree conferrals have grown dramatically over the past decade; both AI-related undergraduate and master’s degree conferrals have increased about 120 percent since 2011, while AI-related PhD conferrals have increased 33 percent since 2011. This growth in AI-related fields has not been consistent at the graduate level: while AI-related master’s degree conferrals doubled between 2011 and 2021, the year-on-year growth varied from 3 percent to nearly 25 percent (in the jump between 2014 and 2015), and AI-related doctoral conferrals varied between less than 0 percent (i.e., dropping) and approximately 4 percent annually.

Figure 2. Growth in AI-Related Degree Conferrals over Time

Undergraduate Degrees by University Conferrals

Across the three degree levels, the top universities conferring AI-related degrees at the bachelor’s level are large universities accessible to a broad range of students, including students who primarily learn online or use lower-cost options by attending public universities. At the master’s and doctoral levels, elite universities (both private and public) dominate the degree market. 

Below, we list the top 10 colleges and universities ranked by the number of AI-related degrees conferred at the bachelor’s level. Note that we maintain IPEDS’s disaggregation of university and college campuses: for example, the University of Maryland Global Campus (which primarily exists online, with no in-person courses) is analytically distinct from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.⁵

Table 1. Top 10 U.S. Universities by AI-Related Bachelor’s Degrees Conferred 2015–2021

As displayed above, the top 10 AI-related bachelor’s degree-conferring institutions contain three universities that operate solely online: Western Governors University, University of Phoenix, and the University of Maryland’s Global (online) campus.⁶ In addition to the top 10 institutions listed above, we analyzed the top 25 AI-related bachelor’s degree-conferring institutions and found that only one of the top 25 is private non-profit university (Rochester Institute of Technology at number 18) that doesn’t operate primarily online (Western Governors University is a private non-profit university, but it is online).⁷ The remainder are either public institutions or online universities (or both, in the case of University of Maryland’s Global campus). At undergraduate levels, online universities and large public universities are graduating high numbers of students in AI-related fields compared to other degree levels.

Master’s Degrees by University Conferrals

Table 2. Top 10 U.S. Universities by AI-related Master’s Degrees Conferred 2015–2021

Table 2 lists the top master’s degree conferrers, and we find overlap with the bachelor’s degree examination (Table 1), including Western Governors University and the University of Maryland Global Campus (two exclusively online programs), and several of the same public state universities. The virtual options confer a smaller proportion of master’s degrees than they do bachelor’s degrees. Furthermore, the top master’s-conferring universities include more private universities (10 of the top 25), such as Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Southern California, and New York University. Of the top 25 AI-related Bachelor’s and Master’s degree-conferring institutions, eight on each list are ranked on csrankings.org, which ranks the top 20 universities based on their numbers of top faculty and top research papers in computer science and AI-related fields.

Doctoral Degrees by University Conferrals

In Table 3 below, we list the top 10 AI-related doctorate-conferring institutions in the United States. Eight of the universities listed in Table 3 are top 20 computer science universities according to CSRankings (while 14 of the top 25 are ranked universities).

Table 3. Top 10 U.S. Universities by AI-Related Doctoral Degrees Conferred 2015–2021

No online-only universities rank among the top 10 AI-related doctorate-conferring universities. The top 25 AI-related doctorate-conferring universities noticeably contain more private universities than the list of top AI-related bachelor’s-conferring universities, but fewer than the master’s-conferring list (four out of 25 for doctorate-conferring universities). Nonetheless, the public universities on the list of the top AI-related doctorate-conferring universities are higher ranked than those in the top AI-related undergraduate-conferring universities, including top universities such as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas in Austin, and the University of Maryland, College Park (not the online-only Global Campus).⁸ The sole virtual option in the top 25 AI-related doctorate-conferring universities is Capella University (ranked 22), a for-profit virtual university.

Conclusion

AI-related bachelor’s degree conferral totals have grown over the past decade despite the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting education starting in 2020. This growth at the bachelor’s level is dominated by public universities, primarily virtual options, and elite public and private universities. AI-related master’s degree conferral totals jumped in the first half of the 2010s and have remained steady since 2016, while AI-related PhD conferrals have seen slow, no, and negative growth at various times over the past decade. At the graduate level, a greater number of elite universities—as defined by faculty and research—comprise the top schools conferring AI-related degrees than at the undergraduate level.

These findings suggest that elite AI universities are a major vehicle for students pursuing the highest levels of AI-related education, despite other avenues that are also available, such as large public schools and virtual options.⁹ Given the complex labor economy where employers are dropping degree requirements, but specialized labor demand in AI- and technology-related industries is skyrocketing, future trends in AI-related postsecondary education are difficult to forecast. In the next snapshot in CSET’s education series, we will examine the rise of AI-related pre-baccalaureate degrees.

1. Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes are codes designating fields of study in postsecondary education. See their site for more details here: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/Default.aspx?y=56.
2. We consider these fields “AI-related” because they are directly relevant to computational methods, theories, and applications. We include nanotechnology-related fields for its use in robotics and other AI-related applications, though it’s mostly relevant at the certificate level, which will be analyzed in the next snapshot.
3. See this working paper from BYU researchers at https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai19-77.pdf and this analysis from the Atlantic at https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/07/has-college-gotten-easier/594550/ and at Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2021/09/28/grade-inflation-is-real/?sh=77a79e127ae4.
4. We use STEM degree classifications from the Department of Homeland Security. See https://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stemList2022.pdf for the current list of qualifying majors.
5. We keep this disaggregation for simplicity and because of what the differentiated graduation totals entail: for example, the University of Maryland Global Campus’ high graduation totals may be a function of its accessibility by being online and should be highlighted. In some cases, different campuses have different requirements: being accepted into Georgia State University’s Perimeter College campus does not necessarily allow a student to use Georgia State University’s Atlanta campus resources or take classes on a different campus, and thus can be analyzed separately.
6. Note that Western Governors University has competency-based degrees that are also catered toward working professionals to get certified in a profession they already work in (for example, IT professionals to obtain a bachelor’s in IT Management). It’s not unheard of for students to finish a bachelor’s degree that typically takes four years in six months at Western Governors University.
7. Note that for the general top 25 universities as determined by degree conferrals, there is also one private non-profit university: Liberty University in Virginia.
8. As ranked by most conventional ranking systems, including CSRankings and U.S. News & World Report.
9. This pattern may be because these more prestigious universities have more resources to maintain sizable doctoral programs. Elite universities may also be better equipped to attract faculty trained in AI; CSET researchers recently published a report revealing evidence of AI doctoral faculty shortages across the United States.