Computing education

Computing Education

Computing and digital skills are increasingly vital for life and work in our technology-rich world. Since our major 2012 report 'Shut down or restart?' we have advocated for a computing education that encourages and develops talent from across the school and college population.

System Upgrade Required

In Autumn 2025, The Royal Society will be publishing a new report which draws together themes from several research projects to identify how computing education must change.

The skills shortage in this area is costing the country an estimated £63bn a year and is preventing it from fostering the next generation of innovators. If we want to keep up with rapid digital developments, and for the UK to be an AI superpower, then students must be equipped to take advantage of the potential that technological progress offers.

Representation in Computing Education

To build on the findings of the segmentation study (below), in 2023 the Society commissioned Chrysalis and Childwise to carry out an additional survey focusing on understanding the sources of inequity in participation in computing education. This study found that girls were less likely to take computing as part of their studies, with more girls than boys likely to say they were not good at computing, or they disliked the subject. Across all young people, responses showed that many find the subject difficult or complicated, particularly in aspects such as coding. Girls and students from minority ethnic groups were more likely to describe themselves as creative, but not many felt computing was a creative subject – something which changes to the content within the computing curriculum could address in order to make the subject more appealing.

Computing and diversity

Not enough young people are taking up computing subjects to fulfil this demand and the computing workforce does not yet reflect the diversity of society. Opening up opportunities for young people from a broad range of backgrounds will help meet skills needs as well as driving innovation and creativity.

As part of this work, the Royal Society commissioned a study, by research agency DJS, to explore why young people are choosing to study computing, or not. This included an online survey of 2,273 young people (aged 11-18) who were organised into segments based on attitudes to education and computing (PDF). Analysis of the demographic profile of these segments identified underrepresented groups and the factors influencing individuals’ decisions to study computing.

The study found that parents and carers, as well as teachers, influenced students' decision to study computing. Computing ‘identity’, a sense of belonging to and identifying with the subject, was found to strongly impact whether a student chose to study computing. Computing identity was highly gendered and was associated with some backgrounds more than others.

Six segments were identified:

• Education enthusiasts
• Future planners
• Easy-going
• Socially influenced
• School dissenters
• Cautious thinkers

Provision and up-take

This report builds on recent investigations into the patchiness of computing qualification provision. We mapped the availability and take-up of GCSE computing in England in 2016, and again seven years later. By 2023, provision had improved, but roughly 1 in 3 secondary schools are still not offering computer science as an option at GCSE.

At A level, provision is even more patchy. Although student numbers have increased steadily, approximately 2 in 5 students were not offered the chance to study A level computing in 2023.

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Contains English Department for Education public sector data modified by Peter Kemp for the King's College London Nuffield funded SCARI computing project, 2024, under the Open Government Licence v3.0 - scari.sites.er.kcl.ac.uk

After the Reboot

The varying availability of computing education across the country was also highlighted when ‘ICT’ was replaced by ‘Computer Science’ as a school subject from 2012. We published a report titled 'After the Reboot' (PDF) to identify some next steps to support the growth of this addition to the curriculum. The report demonstrated that computing education remained ‘patchy and fragile,’ and that improvement was needed to recruit, train and support computing teachers.