[advocaat23]

Good news! I would like to add that another advantage of Python is its usage for scientific computing (Math, Physics, Biology, ...) so students hopefully choose Python to help solving problems for their math classes e.g. using numpy and co. They can then get easiliy into IPython which is IMHO a very important FOSS project.

At my university I feel that proprietary scientific programs and CAS like Matlab, Maple and Mathematica are still the preferred problem solvers for students in the hard sciences (except CS).

[mrchucklepants]

In the engineering fields (I am an ME), I am seeing steady growth in the use of Python and declining use of Matlab. The trend does appear to be more prevalent among younger engineers.