BOOMING TECHNOLOGY FIELD ATTRACTS STUDENTS

Enrollment in the day undergraduate program at DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) in Chicago increased by 24 percent this fall, the largest increase in enrollment of any program within DePaul's eight schools and colleges.

CTI's evening undergraduate program enrollment jumped 23 percent, while graduate program enrollment rose by nearly 13 percent. Computer certificate course enrollments also increased, up 10.6 percent this fall compared to last fall.

CTI Dean Helmut Epp said several factors have caused enrollments to swell in technology education programs. In general, interest in the computer field is increasing because of the rapid growth of the Internet. At the same time, a strong technology job market, with high starting salaries for recent graduates, is attracting students to technology majors, Epp said. Starting salaries for undergrads entering the computer field were in the $36,000 to $38,000 range last spring, and students with graduate degrees in technology were offered up to $45,000.

"At DePaul in particular, cutting-edge degree programs introduced by CTI during the last two years, including human computer interaction, distributed systems and a concentration in database analysis, have attracted an extremely high number of students," Epp said. (more)

"We continually strive to provide our students with the latest in theory and technology," he said.

Six new full-time faculty members and several part-time instructors were hired by CTI to accommodate the demand for classes.

CTI's day undergraduate program enrollment rose by 106 students, increasing to 550. Enrollment in the evening undergraduate program at the computer school increased by 41 students to 218 students.

Graduate enrollment increased by 119 students to 1,038. CTI offers the largest graduate computer education program by enrollment in the country.

Meanwhile, enrollment in computer certificate courses offered by CTI's Institute for Professional Development has grown by 30 students to 313 this fall compared to last fall.

The institute offers 10- to 12-week certificate programs that provide up-to-date knowledge on Java and web development, client/server technology, Visual C programming, Windows software development, DB2 programming, telecommunications and local area networks.

Overall, DePaul University enrollment increased by 510 students this fall to 17,804, the largest enrollment total in DePaul's history.