As the crypto sector evolves and matures, the need for proper blockchain-related training arises. Coinbase, partnering with Qriously, conducted their second annual research on the topic, due to high demand for research. The two companies discovered an uprising interest in the fields of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and protocols among potential students.
The research includes 735 U.S. students from the world’s top-50 universities. The number of students who have enrolled in a class or took a crypto/blockchain course nearly doubled from last year, with 70 percent of students participating in departments outside computer science. Law, finance, engineering and humanities courses are dominating the higher education sector instead of computer-related disciplines.
Coinbase provides insights on the percentage of the top 50 universities that are already offering crypto and Blockchain education. The report shows that in 2018, the percentage was 42%, and the figures for 2019 show a significant increase, as the percentage went up to 56%.
The positive changes in students` perception about blockchain and crypto education will help determine the future of the technology and will inform the future of cryptocurrencies development.
“The fact that students from departments other than the traditional IT – law, finance, economics, and engineering, are also showing a substantial interest in the field of blockchain is exciting,” says Nina Willdorf, director of content at Coinbase. “Universities are also exploring ways to grab their students’ interest by meeting the surging demand in such courses,” Willdorf added.
The “best” crypto university worldwide, according to the research paper, is Cornell. MIT is taking the second position, and the University of New York is third in the race. The ten best universities include Stanford, Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne, Berkeley, Columbia, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the University of Copenhagen, and the National University of Singapore.
In 2017, a student from Cornell formed a Blockchain University Club with their classmates. Later on, a room with the capacity of 120 people was filled with students coming from different background and disciplines across the campus. “We expected a huge dominance by computer science students. It turned out they were only 30 percent of the total number of attendees”, Emin Gun Sires, advisor for the club stated.
Most of the universities offer online crypto and blockchain courses. Websites like Udemy, Coursera, and Udacity also offers such courses, with leading and guest lectors from the crypto industry.