THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • Computer and information sciences enrollment fell 12.4% at four-year colleges, 12.3% at two-year colleges and 10.4% at the graduate level, according to the preliminary report.
  • Overall undergraduate enrollment rose 0.6% and graduate enrollment fell 1.6%, based on data from 46% of reporting institutions as of September 24.
  • Bloomberg links the decline to a tougher entry-level job market shaped by AI; the Clearinghouse's researcher quoted did not assign a cause.

Fewer Americans are studying computer science this autumn, and the drop is now visible at every level of higher education. Preliminary fall 2026 data released on October 29 by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show double-digit declines in computer and information sciences, at a time when total college enrollment barely moved.

What the numbers show

According to Forbes' summary of the report, Preliminary Fall Enrollment Trends, enrollment in the field fell 12.4% at four-year undergraduate institutions, 12.3% at two-year colleges and 10.4% at the graduate level compared with fall 2025. Bloomberg, in a story republished by Business Standard, puts the two-year cumulative drop at 18.4% for undergraduates and 27.1% for graduate students.

The wider picture is flat. The report counts 7.92 million enrollments as of September 24, drawn from 46% of the institutions that submit data to the Clearinghouse. Undergraduate enrollment rose 0.6%, a slowdown from 2.4% growth a year earlier, while graduate enrollment fell 1.6%. Matthew Holsapple, the Clearinghouse's senior director of research, called the computer science declines "remarkable" for a field that had been among the fastest-growing, as quoted by Bloomberg.

A trend that has been building

The slide did not start this year. In an August blog post, the Clearinghouse reported that spring 2026 undergraduate enrollment in the field had already fallen 8.4% at four-year institutions and 11.2% at two-year colleges, and that fall 2025 declines reached 14% at the graduate level. That post did not discuss artificial intelligence.

The AI question

Bloomberg frames the drop as a response to a harder job market, noting that AI has led many companies to cut entry-level coding roles, and cites an August Bureau of Labor Statistics report that ranked computer and mathematical jobs among those most exposed to AI. That link is the publication's reading of the context; neither the figures nor the Clearinghouse researcher quoted establish a cause, and other factors may also be at work.

The numbers come with caveats. They are preliminary, exclude international students, and will be revised in the Final Fall Enrollment Trends report scheduled for January 27.