Coinbase has partnered with research firm Qriously, to investigate student perception of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.
Yesterday, August 28th, the leading cryptocurrency exchange published a report on its blog which includes findings on the rising number of blockchain and crypto related courses as well as student’s interest in cryptocurrencies.
The Coinbase-Qriously research involved a holistic review of the courses studied at 50 international universities, the participation of 675 U.S. students in a survey and interviews with professors and students.
Crypto and Blockchain Courses Highly Sought-After by Students
The findings revealed that 9% of the students who took part in the survey had already taken a cryptocurrency course and 26% wished to do so in the future. Significantly, the report also showed that 18% of the students surveyed already owned cryptocurrencies.
David Yermach, chairman of the New York University Stern School of Business’ Finance Department, was one of the professors interviewed by the researchers.
Interestingly, the professor explained that the first blockchain and financial services course he taught in 2014 attracted a total of 35 students. This number was lower than the average number of 43 students for elective courses in the school.
This year, however, Prof. Yermach had to change the venue for his class due to its soaring popularity, with 230 students signing up.
The professor attributed the high enrollment to the fact that corporations are increasingly seeking out individuals with knowledge about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Enterprising students therefore, are looking to the courses as a way to get ahead.
The rush for blockchain and crypto courses is taken place in other top universities as well.
The study also shows that students with interest in studying blockchain and crypto courses come from a diverse set of departments and are studying a wide array of majors. Perhaps surprisingly, 47% of the social science majors were keen on learning about cryptocurrencies whereas only 34% of the computer science and engineering majors expressed an interest.
The researchers attributed this diversity of student interest to the growing diversity in areas for which blockchain has become relevant.
More Blockchain Courses in Universities
Another key finding from the research was that 42% percent of the top 50 universities in the world had at least one crypto or blockchain related course on offer. Stanford University and Cornell University stood out with an impressive 10 and 9 blockchain courses respectively.
Stanford University has taken somewhat of a lead in this area, opening its Centre for Blockchain Research earlier this year to allow multi-disciplinary research on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
The study also found that the blockchain and cryptocurrency courses were not limited to the computer science and finance departments but were available to other departments including anthropology.
Encouragingly for the crypto-space, the Coinbase report suggests that universities are beginning to view blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies as areas worthy of study
Industry experts will no doubt see these findings as indicators of the impact cryptocurrencies are already having, as well as boding well for the future growth of the space.
