The 2nd Annual Coinbase Report on Higher Education claims that courses on digital currencies as well as their underlying Blockchain technology are rapidly gaining more students in the higher institutions around the world.
Following the data release, universities and colleges are increasing the number of blockchains and cryptocurrency-related courses they offer, due to the growing demands from students and the rising awareness of cryptocurrencies.
In 2018, about 42 percent of schools offered crypto courses, however, 56 percent of top 50 universities in the world are now offering at least one course on Blockchain or cryptocurrency, with the Cornell University topping the list of leaders in crypto education.
Computer science courses, which are still considered the most common courses offered, accounted for 32.2 percent, with the finance, business, and economics courses collectively clocking at 19.8 percent, followed by law-school courses with 10.7 percent.
According to Nina Willdorf, Director of Content and Editorial for Coinbase, the growing interest of students to learn about digital currencies at colleges and universities speaks volumes about the future of money.
“What’s most exciting about these findings is that they show interest far beyond computer science and programming to law, economics, finance, and social sciences,” Willdorf said.
While the interest in studying the field of cryptocurrency continues to grow, Willdorf added that “some of the world’s best universities are exploring how they can meet surging demand to sate curiosity about the technology and set their graduates up for success.”
However, it is fair to note that Coinbase research is a Qriously survey of 735 United States’ students from the age of 16 and above. Moreover, classes only tell part of the story of a university’s commitment to a particular field of study.
Coinbase analysis is usually conducted on non-coursework offerings such as official research initiatives, student-run crypto clubs, interviews with professors and students and tracked research citations from all 50 schools, including data from Google Scholar attributions.
