Five majors skyrocket in student popularity

According to an article released by The Chronicle of Higher Education, five undergraduate majors are rising in popularity and are expected to develop at more universities: service science, health informatics, computational science, sustainability and public health. 

While some of these majors are already offered as classes at the graduate level, there is growing student and employer interest in the undergraduate level due to many different factors. 

According to Blakely Pomietto, director of student services at the the public health school, the federal government is looking for majors such as public health due to a shortage of workers in the field. 

The federal government estimates they will need to fill 54,114 positions in the medical and public health category by 2012, said Stacey Brown, a program director at the career center. 

Positions in demand include occupational therapists, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians and industrial hygienists, says Brown.

According to the Chronicle, between the years 2003 and 2007, bachelor's degrees in Public Health increased from 1,322 to 2,639. Pomietto also attributes the growing interest in Public Health to a change in perceptions about health in general.

"Socially we are seeing more of a focus on health improvement and disease prevention. We see a lot of students who interested in a healthy and helpful prevention" said Pimietto.

Health informatics, a related field, while projected to increase in the future due to economic stimulus funding of $19 billion, is currently at a standstill, however. The more technologically based field involves training workers to use health care databases. However, the only currently related Public Health Informatics field that the university offers is the 12 credit Public Health Informatics graduate certificate.

Computational Science is similarly limited to only graduate study in scientific fields like Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences as of right now. While skills in computational science are not required by private companies, federal organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration require that workers have experience with the field, says professor of atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Da-Lin Zhang.

In addition to federal interest, private companies are also a major motivation behind the growing trend in majors such as service science. According to Dr. Roland T. Rust, the service sector of the US economy has grown from 30% to over 80% in a span of 100 years.

"Service Science is a hugely important topic in the business world and they need to hire students who are knowledgeable about it," Rust said. "The vast majority of jobs are towards service, a lot of large companies like IBM are pressing universities to have more training."

The university does not currently offer an official major in service science. However, the Center for Excellence in Service, which was established in 2000, aims to educate students in the service science sector with workshops, conferences, research and other projects. Furthermore, the business school offers curricula that are directly involved in service science like service marketing, customer equity management and e-commerce. Rust added that business classes have accommodated the growing need for knowledge in service science by including relevant topics in their regular curricula.

Student interest is not solely guided by employment prospects, however. In majors related to sustainability, the interest can be attributed to an overall change in behavior toward the environment, says Mark Stewart, the campus sustainability coordinator at the office of sustainability. In fact, the department of environmental science and technology has seen a boost in enrollment.

"There's a lot of interest in sustainability, students year by year are becoming more interested in this. We were talking about data… student participation in sustainability are all trending in the right direction, people are more conscious of these things."

Though the university does not have an official "sustainability" major, colleges do offer majors that are heavily involved with the environment. The majors are applied and range from agricultural studies, biochemistry, to environmental science and technology. There are also a wide variety of minors and certificates that students can apply for if they are not interested in pursuing a full time major.

All of the majors that are projected to increase in development and student enrollment are applied majors and offer workers with degrees in these fields an additional advantage in the hiring process. 

"Employers are looking for entry level hires who possess skills that match their organization's needs, regardless of major. Many employers have shared that their minimum qualifications for positions is holding a bachelors degree. However, employers are willing to train new hires for the job that they would like for them to do. Students who possess an open, flexible mind and who recognize their transferable skills place themselves in positions that are marketable to employers," Brown said.

ga@umdbk.com