Student enrollment in computer science has continued an upward trend that started last year. Total enrollment by undergrad computer science majors is up 5.5 percent over last year, a shallower recovery than the year before. However, the numbers on gender and ethnic diversity are less impressive, and the field has seen its first decline in PhD production since the 2001-2002 year.

Of the computer science departments that the Computing Research Association surveyed for information, 71 percent responded, a slight decline from last year's 73 percent. Their responses showed that computer science undergrad enrollment is up a total of 14 percent from when it bottomed out in 2007.

Bachelor's degree production declined by 12 percent in 2009 from the year before, an echo of the low enrollments from a few years back, when graduates first declared in computer science. Females remain a small contingent of graduates, constituting 11.3 percent, and minority graduation rates declined 1.6 percent over the year before (down to 10.1 percent).

Likewise, graduate programs have seen some statistical fluctuations. For the first time since the 2001-2002 academic year, PhD Production rates have declined 6.9 percent in all computing-related study areas, and 7.8 percent in computer science.

Like bachelor's degree production rates, this is partially an echo of low enrollment when graduate students started their programs in 2002-2003. The statistic may also reflect an unwilligness to enter the ravaged job market. Total enrollment in PhD Programs has remained the same, though the percentage of new doctoral students from outside North America has gone up to 59.1 percent, compared to 54 percent last year.

PhD graduates have specialized more in security and architecture and less in databases, software engineering, and theory. Only 47.1 percent of 2009 graduates entered industry, compared to 2008's 56.6 percent. The report's authors suggest that this is a product of the new NSF Computing Innovation Fellows program, which provided more opportunities for postdoctoral studies in the academic world.

At the master's level, there was a slight increase in new students, less than two percent. The biggest difference was the increase of non-resident alien graduates to roughly two-thirds of those enrolled, up from 55.8 percent in 2008. Other master's stats, like gender ratios, have held.