n014  0805  02 Nov 83
BC-CAREERS
(BizDay)
By ELIZABETH M. FOWLER
c. 1983 N.Y. Times News Service
    NEW YORK - When Paul E. Gray worries about something, many other
educators have the same headache. As president of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Gray heads one of the nation's top
engineering colleges. And his current problem is a surfeit of majors
in computer science and electrical engineering.
    From Gray's vantage point, a surplus of students studying the same
topic creates an imbalance in the use of his faculty. But from the
students' point of view it makes sense to study a topic that will
guarantee good job prospects upon graduation. And the prospects now
for computer science majors are excellent.
    At MIT, ''the number of students majoring in the departments of
mechanical, chemical and electrical engineering and computer science
is particularly high,'' Gray said recently in his annual report to
the college's trustees.
    In a recent interview, Gray said that the MIT undergraduate
enrollment in the computer science department had doubled in less
than 10 years, and now has ''one out of every three undergraduates
who have declared a major field of study.''
    ''We have 3,200 undergraduate students who have declared majors, and
that excludes 1,200 students, either sophomores who have not declared
their major, or freshmen, who are not eligible,'' he said. Some 1,100
students of the 3,200 have declared plans to major in computer
science, he added. Another large number have chosen electrical
engineering, closely allied to computer science.
    Other engineering schools have the same imbalance. At the University
of Michigan, for instance, 14.5 percent of majors in the engineering
department have chosen computer science, and another 19 percent,
electrical engineering.
    The California Institute of Technology, which does not have a
computer science major, estimates that about 55 percent of its 829
undergraduates study in fields heavily involved in computer
development.
    Ways must be found to limit this dramatic shift toward one
department - computer science - Gray said, because it produces a
strain on the faculty involved and leaves the faculties in other
departments with relatively too few students.
    For every MIT computer faculty member there are 16 students, either
undergraduates or graduates, compared with an average of about one
faculty member for every ''eight to nine students'' for the college
as a whole.
    Each computer science faculty member ''is supervising an average of
eight thesis projects at any time,'' Gray said. Seniors as well as
graduate students complete theses.
    There have been reports all over the nation of shortages of computer
science and electrical engineering faculty members because of the
lure of higher salaries offered by industry.
    ''The situation gets a little worse each year,'' Gray said. ''If you
started out to hire 20 qualified faculty members for computer science
departments you could not find them.''
    He said that few graduates with computer science majors chose to get
master's degrees and doctorates with the idea of teaching. But he
hastened to add that MIT has no ''open positions'' because it already
has ''augmented the faculty.''
    ''This increase in interest in computer science and electrical
engineering certainly in part evidences students' greater concern
with the economic consequences of their academic decisions, and it
also affects the quality of undergraduate education at MIT,'' Gray
said.
    He added that the worry about jobs was reflected not only in the
choice of field but also ''in a growing tendency to specialize as
early as possible.''
    ''Such decisions frequently limit the opportunities for a more
general exploratory and varied educational experience, especially
important at the undergraduate level,'' he said. ''We must find ways
to generate student interest in other fields.''
    Engineering, with its many specialties, regularly poses supply and
demand problems based on temporary economic changes. For example, oil
industry price and supply problems have resulted recently in fewer
job opportunities for young chemical engineers. This is reminiscent
of the surplus of aeronautical engineers when Boeing lost big
contracts a few years ago, resulting in a large layoff.
    But for now, there is no oversupply of computer science experts on
the market and Gray doubts there will be for for many years. ''I took
my wife's sewing machine to be fixed last week, and I found that the
newest model has a microprocessor and a little keyboard,'' he said,
explaining that the growing demand for computer science experts had
spilled over into the manufacture of a wide range of consumer
products that once were mechanical in nature.
    Gray has several ideas to solve the problem of too many computer
students.
    He suggests that faculty advisers could focus student interest on
other fast-growth fields - biotechnology and specialty metals, for
example. Also, some areas, such as civil engineering, will offer
increased opportunities because of the new emphasis on repairing
bridges, roads and dams.
    
nyt-11-02-83 1103est
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