Now, with the state Legislature providing money to add new undergraduate programs in the field, including computer graphics and animation, the department figures it will need as many as 14 additional professors. Complicating the hiring process, too many employers are chasing too few Ph.D.'s. The number of new Ph.D.'s in computer science and computer engineering peaked in 1992, at 1,113, and dropped to 933 by 1998, according to the Computing Research Association. Because of the booming job market in the computer industry, fewer people are enrolling in doctoral programs. And many of those who do enroll are jumping ship before their degrees are completed to accept job offers from corporations.
Students come and get a master's, and they feel that is enough of a ticket.
Two years ago, the University of Washington introduced a course in software entrepreneurship, only to see three Ph.D. students who had taken the course leave before finishing their degrees. They headed off to the business world to put their new skills to work. Sometimes the pull comes even earlier. This month, a student who had signed up to enter the graduate program at Princeton contacted the university to say that the start-up company he works at is doing so well that he'd decided to stay put. At the University of Texas at Austin, the number of people graduating with doctorates in computer science has fallen from 24 in 1991 to just 17 in 1998.