The popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has recently published its 2nd Annual Report on Higher Education. Coinbase partnered with Qriously, a research and survey platform, to interact with students directly regarding their thoughts on blockchain and cryptocurrency, and how students’ interest has changed in a year.
In this report, Coinbase highlights several facts on how the top universities in the world are offering at least one blockchain and cryptocurrency-related course across a range of disciplines.
According to the Coinbase report, leading universities and colleges around the world are increasingly offering blockchain and cryptocurrency courses which is driven by a rising awareness to crypto and also to meet the increased demand for those topics by students.
The students are keen to learn about the new digital asset class and decentralized ledger technology and its applications in the real world. Coinbase’s 2nd annual report on higher education reviewed the course catalogs of the top 50 global universities as ranked by US News and World Report. The report also studies the classes, which teaches blockchain and cryptocurrency-related subjects, available for undergraduate and graduate-level students in 2019.
Coinbase says in the report that more than half (56% to be exact) of the world’s top 50 universities are offering at least one course on blockchain and cryptocurrency in 2019, compared to 42 percent in 2018. Moreover, cryptocurrency and blockchain classes are not only limited to be taught in the department of computer science (which accounts for 32.2 percent) but also in other disciplines such as finance and banking.
In addition, nearly 70% of crypto and blockchain courses are in other departments such as humanities, law, and economics. Finance, business, and economics classes altogether account for 19.8 percent, and law-school classes add another 10.7 percent.
Top Crypto Universities: Cornell and MIT
Coinbase has also published the list of ‘the Coinbase 2019 Leaders in Crypto Education’ in which Cornell University topped. Cornell offers 14 classes on cryptocurrency and/or blockchain, compared to 9 classes in 2019. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and New York University ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Coinbase also partnered with Qriously to survey 735 U.S. students ages 16 and older which shows that the number of students who have taken crypto/blockchain classes in 2018 increased from 9% to 18% in 2019. 34% of students surveyed said that they are interested in crypto/blockchain courses, compared to 28% in 2018.
“The increasing interest in studying crypto at colleges and universities speaks volumes about the future of money,” said Nina Willdorf, Director of Content and Editorial for Coinbase.
There are several higher education initiatives of prominent crypto firms. The most famous one is by Ripple, that operates the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP)trade, and which lately expanded to two other universities in Japan.
