[enraged_camel]

>>Is a disinterest in teaching current professional practice really a failing of universities?

I think the issue is that universities are not in a good position to judge what is "fundamental knowledge" and what is simply a current professional practice.

I have a B.S. in Informatics from the University of Washington. It's basically a degree at the intersection of computer science and humanities[1]. During the course of my studies, I also took a lot of non-degree courses from other schools at the university, including a three-semester program focused on Information Security and Assurance.

After I earned my certificate from that program, I went to the dean of the Information School and argued that information security should be made a core part of the Informatics curriculum.

He said: "Just because information security is the hot thing right now doesn't mean it should be a part of the curriculum. Students can take courses on it and count it towards their degree, but it doesn't seem to me like it's fundamental knowledge."

So yeah. To this day, when I see poorly designed, unsecure systems, I think of that moment: some academic declaring that information security does not constitute fundamental knowledge for a degree program about information, technology and computers.

[1]https://ischool.uw.edu/academics/informatics

[argonaut]

Security is not a required class for pretty much all CS degrees, including at other top CS schools like MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. And from my experience, academics at these schools know exactly what professional practice is, given how many professors start startups out of these universities.

Students are not dumb. I personally think no specific classes should be required of a CS degree (other than a specific number of classes), and while the department should make recommendations, they should trust the intelligence of their students and give them freedom to pick the right classes.

[enraged_camel]

>>Security is not a required class for pretty much all CS degrees, including at other top CS schools like MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.

Next time a bunch of credit card data is stolen from a high-profile retailer, or credentials with plaintext passwords leaked from some company's database, you should think long and hard about what factors may have contributed to it.

>>Students are not dumb. I personally think no specific classes should be required of a CS degree (other than a specific number of classes), and while the department should make recommendations, they should trust the intelligence of their students and give them freedom to pick the right classes.

Wait, hold on. You are expecting a bunch of 19-23 year olds to make intelligent and wise decisions about what classes they need to take in order to succeed in their field?