Rocketing Demand for AI Courses at UvA & VU

Once again, UvA and VU have seen a significant growth in the number of students wishing to study artificial intelligence this year. Interest in related courses, for example data science and business analytics, has also risen very sharply, see the NOS interview with ADS top researchers Frank van Harmelen and Maarten de Rijke HERE

This year, the UvA and VU have had to limit the number of AI admissions. The growing interest goes alongside the excellent job prospects for AI graduates. AI specialists are in high demand across sectors, including finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, amongst many others.

A total of 700 students applied to enroll in the UvA and VU’s joint Master’s AI programme. ADS Professor Maarten de Rijke (UvA) told NOS, “We can accommodate about 180 new students. But if there is such a demand for students with that background, and there are so many students who want to study this topic at the same time, then we have to increase. We offered 250 students a place, but we’re actually hoping that not all of them will stand on the sidewalk come September and that some will do something different or were unable to get their finances in order.”

There are deep concerns amongst scientists that the EU are lagging behind the United States and China when it comes to AI. In the US, tech giants are investing billions of euros into AI, and attractive research programmes are luring AI talent away.

Read the full NOS article HERE