The recent survey by US-based popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, in association with Qriously - a London-based ad-tech company, has shown that there has been a rise of crypto and blockchain courses at leading universities, amid a growing student interest. 

The joint survey found that 42 percent of the top 50 universities offer at least one class on blockchain or cryptocurrency, and 22 percent offer more than one.  Blockchain and cryptocurrency courses are most prominent in the U.S. Only five of the 18 universities reviewed that operate outside of the U.S. offer at least one class on these topics. A total of 675 U.S. college students were interviewed for the survey. 
 

One possible reason for such diverse interest in crypto and blockchain is its potential to impact society across many domains. Dawn Song, a computer science professor at University of California, Berkeley said:

"Blockchain combines theory and practice and can lead to fundamental breakthroughs in many research areas. It can have really profound and broad-scale impacts on society in many different industries.”

Coinbase’s analysis found that of the 172 classes listed by the top 50 universities, 15 percent were offered by the business, economics, finance, and law departments, and four percent were in social science departments such as anthropology, history, and political science.

The survey further found that 17 percent of computer science and engineering majors have already taken a course that focuses on these topics, as have 15 percent of economics and math majors and 11 percent of business majors. Just five percent of social science majors have taken such a course. A quarter of all students said they would definitely or probably take a course focused on cryptocurrency or blockchain.

You can read the full survey report here.