Estonian ICT EducationAn Outsider’s Inside View

Marlon Dumas

University of Tartu

14 Dec. 2010

Estonian ICT Education – Status

Quantity (rough estimates)

• ≈ 10000 ICT Professionals

• ≈ 2500-3000 students (+ vocational)

• ≈ 400-450 Bachelors graduates p.a.

• ≈ 150-200 Masters graduates p.a.

• ≈ 15-20 PhDs p.a.• ≈ 1:20 Faculty-student ratio (excl. research staff)

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Estonian ICT Education – Status

Quality (from UT’s perspective)

• High employability in Estonia and abroad

• Good feedback from visitors and reviewers

• Employers whine, but overall satisfied

• Average student ratings (but high variability)

• Low participation and rather low rankings in international student contests

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But not good enough…?

• High attrition

• Low Bac-to-Masters conversion

• Industry asks for more and better

• Lack of specialists in several fields

• Graduates lack communication/team skills 4

IT is Outward-Looking

• IT is and will remain inherently inter-disciplinary

• Ergo:– Teach IT outside IT schools– Bring non-IT graduates into IT schools and

vice-versa– Foster teamwork between IT students and

students from other fields

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IT Knows no Boundaries

• IT either comes to you or IT leaves you

• Ergo:– If you have capacity, admit international students– Give yourself the means of keeping them…– Send your students abroad (and back)– International academics will help – short-term– But long-term: local academic staff getting

international projection would help even more! 6

Good IT is Better Than Bad IT

• One “good” (well-trained) IT specialist is more productive than 5-10 poorly-trained ones

» Adapted from “The Mythical Man-Month” by F. Brooks

• Ergo– Do not expand at the cost of quality– Prune where needed…

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Not enough good apples?

8Maine-ly Apples

How to do IT?• Together!

– IT is global, our “competitors” are outside Estonia!

– Duplication of efforts is not viable!

• Progressively and measurably– Let’s get the objectives, metrics and targets right!

And what’s the price tag?

If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance…

Derek Bok & Andy McIntyre

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