Leading universities are offering a growing number of crypto courses: Coinbase

The latest student survey discovered that almost one fifth of US students actually own cryptocurrency.

More than two fifths of the world’s top 50 universities currently offer at least one course on blockchain or cryptocurrency, highlighting the growing popularity of the industry, according to a new exchange-led survey.

US-based digital currency exchange Coinbase commissioned research firm Qriously to carry out a study of 675 US students aged 16 and up in order to gauge their thoughts and sentiments on the rise of cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase also analyzed classes on offer at the top 50 universities around the world, as ranked by US News and World Report: Best Global Universities 2018. The study focused on classes available to undergraduate-level students in the fall 2018 semester or the most recent semester for which information was available online.

The survey found that 21 (42%) of the top 50 universities offer at least one cryptocurrency or blockchain class. Additionally, a little over one fifth (22%) of these educational institutions offer more than one crypto class.

United States’ universities conduct the most crypto-related courses. Just one quarter (27%) of the international universities within the top 50 offer at least one cryptocurrency class. Only two – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and National University of Singapore – offer more than one.

Among the world’s leading universities there are 172 crypto-related courses for students. Of these, the overwhelming majority (81%) were tied to math and science. A little over one in ten (15%) were offered by business, economics, finance and law departments, while a small proportion (4%) were social sciences studies.

However, these figures are likely to change in coming years, as a greater number of social science majors (47%) declared an interest in learning about cryptocurrency than computer science and engineering majors (34%).

Cryptocurrency and blockchain courses at top universities

Cryptocurrency is wildly popular among US students

Around one in ten (9%) US university students have taken a cryptocurrency class. More than one quarter (26%) of US students would be interested in taking a crypto-focused course at some point during their studies.

Coinbase’s survey also discovered that almost one fifth (18%) of US students own cryptocurrency. Students studying medicine (19%), computer science (18%) and other subjects (15%) were likeliest to own coins.

There are also plenty of options for people not currently enrolled at a university to learn more about crypto. Online learning sites like Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Udacity offer hundreds of courses, including general lessons in foundational cryptography and more specialized classes on blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Coinbase student cryptocurrency survey August 2018

Several leading colleges throughout the United States now offer dedicated classes examining the increasingly popular cryptocurrency industry and the still-developing blockchain technology that supports it. Graduate-level classes are being held at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and more. Earlier this year, New York University business and law professor David Yermack, who taught one of the first credit-approved courses on cryptocurrency in 2014, revealed that there had been an overwhelming enthusiasm for classes last semester, with 225 students signed up prior to starting.

One of the core features of blockchain systems is the ability to create tamper-proof, forgery-proof digital assets. To date, this has mostly been digital currencies, made finite and given value through this system. But certifications are an especially good example. This week, using Blockcerts, Bahamian graduate students were easily able to upload, receive, share, instantly verify and own their official graduation certificates.

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