Dive Brief:

• The Wall Street Journal reports on the flight of computer science and STEM professors and researchers leaving jobs at universities for positions with tech companies like Google and Amazon, looking to pioneer development in artificial intelligence.
• According to the story, the number of computer-science faculty has jumped nearly 20% over the last 10 years, but the defections will significantly reduce the number of professors available to teach the next generation of scientists and researchers. 
• Salaries for credentialed computer scientists in private industry nearly double those of post-doctoral researchers in campus-based laboratories.

Dive Insight:

This could potentially be a turning point for higher education in several industries, as most professionals are finding ways to become entrepreneurs in a variety of fields, rather than being limited to professional practice or teaching as the only two career options. 

It is particularly perilous for computer science departments at institutions, which ironically enough, are replacing faculty members with robots and programs like Siri to facilitate classes while losing the designers of these programs to the world's biggest innovation companies.