Artificial intelligence (AI)
International landscape
- Academic offer of AI master’s programmes is led by the US, with the EU showing improvement over time but lagging behind in all considered years.
- The trend of specialised master’s offer of the EU, the US and the UK are very similar, showing a remarkable increase in the number of specialised master’s programmes in the previous academic year (2021-22).
- The EU presents the highest penetration rate in all years observed, i.e., the highest share of AI master’s over the total offer of masters (in all disciplines).
Academic offer related to AI master's degrees
Content areas
- In the main considered geographical areas (the EU, the UK, the US) “Machine learning” holds the largest share, while in 2020-21, the largest share was for “Robotics & automation” (which now is second).
- A remarkable decrease of the share of “Robotics & automation” for the UK is detected with respect to the previous academic year (2020-21).
- “AI applications” and “AI ethics” remain stable over time in the third and fourth position, respectively.
AI-related master's degrees by geographic area and content area, 2021-22
Fields of education
- “ICT” is the main field of education in which AI content is taught.
- The EU offer of AI broad master’s is more limited than the one of the US, especially in the fields of "ICT" and "Engineering, manufacturing and construction".
- The EU offer of AI specialised master’s is very similar to that of the US and the UK.
Content areas & fields of education (for EU27)
- Among the 27 EU Member States, the content related to “Robotics & automation” leads in the field of education “Engineering, manufacturing and construction”.
- In the EU, the “ICT” field of education presents a balanced distribution of contents, while other fields of education are more focused in one or two content areas.
- The field of education “Business, administration and law” is mainly focused in “AI applications” and “Machine learning”.
AI-related master's degrees in the EU by field of education and content area, 2021-22
High performance computing (HPC)
International landscape
- Academic offer of HPC is led by the US, with the EU showing improvements and overtaking UK starting from 2020-21.
- The specialised master’s offer of the EU is higher than the one of the UK, but lower than the one of US in any considered year.
- The EU offer of HPC broad master’s increases considerably but starting from a much lower level than the one the US, which is the highest.
- The academic offer of specialised HPC master’s programmes is very limited.
Academic offer related to HPC master's degrees
Content areas
- The EU offer is equally focused in the content areas of “Cloud”, “Parallel computing” and “System architecture”.
- The US presents a content areas distribution that is almost the same as the one of the EU, with a lower share of “Cloud” and a larger share of “HPC (generic)”.
- The UK presents a remarkable focus in “Cloud” content.
HPC-related master's degrees by geographic area and content area, 2021-22
Fields of education
- “ICT” remains by far the main field of education in which HPC content is taught, and other fields of education have very low shares.
- The EU academic offer of HPC broad master’s is more limited than the one of the US, but larger than the one of the UK.
Content areas & fields of education (for EU27)
- The content area related to “Cloud” is the prevailing one in the fields of education of “Business, administration and law”, but with a lower share than in the previous academic year (2020-21).
- The “ICT” field of education presents a balanced distribution of contents related to “Parallel computing”, “Cloud” and “System architecture”.
- In the field of education “Engineering, manufacturing and construction”, a strong focus in the content areas of “System architecture” & “Parallel computing” is observed, with the latter presenting a larger share than in the previous academic year (2020-21).
HPC-related master's degrees in the EU by field of education and content area, 2021-22
Cybersecurity (CS)
International landscape
- The academic offer of CS is led by the US, with the EU also lagging behind the UK. In addition, the offer of the US appears to have remarkably increased in the last year.
- The specialised master’s offer of the EU, is lower than those of the US and the UK.
- The offer of the EU appears to be consistent over time, with a modest positive trend concerning specialised master’s.
- The US presents a very remarkable growth in specialised master’s from 2020-21 to 2021-22 (~ +25%), starting from a very large number of programmes offered (~300 in 2020-21).
- The penetration rate of specialised master’s is very similar for the three main geographical areas (the EU, the UK, the US), but with different trends: the one of the US and the EU appears stable over time, while the one of the UK is decreasing (largest offer in 2019-20 and smallest one in 2021-22).
Academic offer related to CS master's degrees
Content areas
- As in 2020-21, the EU principal area of content is “Network & Distributed Systems Security”, while the US and the UK’s offers are mainly focused in “Data Security and Privacy".
- For the EU, the share of “Cryptology (Cryptography and Cryptanalysis)” is considerable (~15%), especially if compared to those of the US (~8%) and the UK (~5%).
- In the UK, a considerable decrease of the share of “Cryptology (Cryptography and Cryptanalysis)” is observed with respect to the previous year.
CS-related master's degrees by geographic area and content area, 2021-22
Fields of education
- “ICT” is undoubtedly the main field of education in which CS content is taught.
- The EU offer of CS broad master’s is more limited than the one of the US, especially in the fields of education of “ICT” and “Business, administration and law”.
- A considerable offer of CS broad master’s in the field of education “Business, administration and law” is detected for the UK.
Content areas & fields of education (for EU27)
- Among the 27 EU Member States, the content in “Software and Hardware Security Engineering” is leading in the field of education “Business, administration and law”.
- In the EU, the field of education “ICT” is mainly focused in the content area of “Network & Distributed Systems Security”, but also a good share of “Data Security and Privacy” is present in it.
- In the EU, the field of education “Engineering, manufacturing and construction” is very focused in the content area regarding “Network & Distributed Systems Security”.
CS-related master's degrees in the EU by field of education and content area, 2021-22
Data science (DS)
International Landscape
- The academic offer of DS is led by the US (which also presents a considerable increase over time), with the EU showing an offer which is very similar to the one of the UK.
- The specialised master’s offer of the EU and the UK are very similar and present similar trends (i.e., a considerable increase in the last year) but the one of US is larger in any considered year.
- All areas considered (the EU, the UK, the US) show remarkable increase in number of specialised master’s programme in the last year (from 2020-21 to 2021-22).
- The US is remarkably leading in DS broad master’s.
Academic offer related to DS master's degrees
Content areas
- “Machine learning & Statistical modelling” appears as the main content area taught in DS, and its shares has increased in all main areas (the EU, the UK, the US) with respect to the previous year (2020-21).
- Compared to the previous year, in the EU the share of “Data analytics (generic)” has slightly increased, while the one of “Business intelligence” has slightly decreased.
- The content area “Big Data” has a modest share in the US (~15%), while in the UK and the EU it is much larger (~25% and ~22%, respectively).
DS-related master's degrees by geographic area and content area, 2021-22
Fields of education
- “ICT” is undoubtedly the main field of education concerning DS specialised master’s.
- The field of education of “Business, administration and law” holds the largest share for what concerning DS broad master’s, closely followed by the one of “ICT”.
- The US presents a remarkable offer of DS specialised master’s in the field of education of “Business, administration and law”.
Content areas & fields of education (for EU27)
- In the EU, the field of education “Business, administration and law” presents as main content area the one concerning to “Big data”. Also, in the same field of education, the content area on “Data analytics (generic)” has increased with respect to the previous year (2020-21).
- With respect to the 2020-21 academic year, in the EU the share of the content area “Machine learning & statistical modelling” in the field of education “ICT” has increased (now accounting for more than 40%).
- Among the 27 EU Member States, the content area “Engineering, manufacturing and construction” is very concentrated in “Machine learning & statistical modelling” and the share of “Data mining” has decreased with respect to the previous year.
DS-related master's degrees in the EU by field of education and content area, 2021-22
Overlaps in the Offer of Digital Domains
- As in the previous academic year (2020-21), AI and DS present the only considerable intersection in terms of education offer.
- The size of this intersection (38% overall) has remarkably increased in comparison to the previous year (31.3%).
- The US clearly leads the education offer of advanced digital technologies (considering the 4 domains: AI, HPC, CS, DS).
- The EU lags behind the US, with an offer that is similar to the one of the UK.
