Computer science boom in South Africa

Just over 10,000 computer science students graduated at the end of 2022, a more than 71% increase from 10 years prior.

The South African class of 2022 saw 10,045 computer science students graduate from the country’s 27 public universities and higher education institutions, an increase of 688 from the previous year.

For context, 225,702 people graduated from those institutions in 2022, meaning computer science graduates comprised 4.45% of this group.

This is according to the Higher Education Data Analysis database, which currently has records available until 2022. Data for 2023 will become available at the end of May.

All courses classified under the Classification of Educational Subject Matter code 060 are included in the statistics.

The University of South Africa and Tshwane University of Technology saw the most computer science graduates pass the course, with 1,034 and 1,064, respectively.

Other major universities, such as Wits, UJ, UKZN, UCT, and Stellenbosch, had much smaller complements ranging between 250 and 450 students.

The field of study has also seen significant growth in graduates over the past few decades, increasing by 123% since 2002 and 71% since 2012.

However, while interest in computer science has increased significantly over the past few decades, especially recently, the number of graduates is much lower than in other major fields.

For instance, 14,363 engineering students graduated from South African universities in 2022, with another 60,166 finishing with business and finance qualifications.

Similarly, 13,815 university students graduated with law degrees and 41,530 with education degrees.

It is worth noting that engineering is a diverse field, ranging from civil engineering to chemical engineering.

The increase in graduates of the abovementioned degrees has also trumped that of computer science over the past 20 years, excluding education.

Engineering graduates increased by 175% from 2002 to 2022, business and finance graduates by 143%, law graduates by 155%, and education by 78%.

More recently, computer science saw strong growth relative to these fields over the past decade of data.

Only law graduates increased more from 2012 to 2022, with other fields growing by less than 35%, as indicated in the table below.

The number of computer science graduates is also significantly more than that of matrics who pass the National Senior Certificate’s final Information technology exam.

Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube recently revealed that 4,510 learners wrote the IT exam in 2024, 0.65% of the 705,291 learners who wrote NSC exams last year.

Of the 4,510 learners who wrote the final exam in 2024, 2,891 (64%) scored above 50% and 2,476 (55%) above 60%.

This trend was consistent in the previous four years, with most learners achieving a mark of above 60% and more than 60% achieving above 50%.

The NSC criteria requires that learners obtain a minimum of 40% for a home language, 40% in four subjects, and 30% in two other subjects to pass.

This would mean that learners would require between 30% and 40% to pass IT, depending on their performance in other subjects.

The minister also provided data on the number of learners who passed at lower pass requirements, with an average of 94% passing the exam when only 30% is required.

An average of 83% of learners passed when 40% was required.

The data also included the percentage of students who obtained distinctions (over 80%) in the subject. This number was consistently over 20% for the five years, with 22% of learners achieving distinctions in 2024.

The highest rate of distinctions, 27%, was recorded in 2023, which aligns with the year’s performance in other metrics.