Erasing non-informative words: “ad” and “hoc”.

The growing demand for data scientists in both the global and Dutch labour markets has led to an increase in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) master programs offered by universities. However, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the specific skills of data scientists. This study addresses this issue by employing Correlated Topic Modeling (CTM) to analyse the content of 41 master programs offered by 11 Dutch universities and an interuniversity combined program. We assess the differences and similarities in the core skills taught by these programs, determine the subject-specific and general nature of the skills, and provide a comparison between the different types of universities offering these programs. Our analysis reveals that data processing, statistics, research, and ethics are the core competencies in Dutch data science and AI master programs. General universities tend to focus on research skills, while technical universities lean more towards IT and electronics skills. Broad-focussed data science and AI programs generally concentrate on data processing, information technology, electronics, and research, while subject-specific programs give priority to statistics and ethics. This research enhances the understanding of the diverse skills of Dutch data science graduates, providing valuable insights for employers, academic institutions, and prospective students.</div

Plot of the coherence scores per number of K topics for the CTM.

Plot of the coherence scores per number of K topics for the CTM.</p

Seven bar plots of the posteriors per university for every manually labelled topic of the CTM outcomes.

Seven bar plots of the posteriors per university for every manually labelled topic of the CTM outcomes.</p

The posterior distribution of the 7 topics across the 4 master programs offered at Utrecht (UU, top) and Groningen University (RUG, bottom).

The posterior distribution of the 7 topics across the 4 master programs offered at Utrecht (UU, top) and Groningen University (RUG, bottom).</p

Order of most important manually labelled topic terms per university based on posterior values for the CTM.

Order of most important manually labelled topic terms per university based on posterior values for the CTM.</p

Overview of 2021 master programs: Distribution by institution and corpus of student body by enrollment numbers, categorized into general (G) or specific (S) programs.

Overview of 2021 master programs: Distribution by institution and corpus of student body by enrollment numbers, categorized into general (G) or specific (S) programs.</p

Search keys data science and artificial intelligence.

Search keys data science and artificial intelligence.</p

Top ten most frequent words per topic for the CTM with 13 topics.

Top ten most frequent words per topic for the CTM with 13 topics.</p

Manual changes made to the texts as part of data pre-processing.

Manual changes made to the texts as part of data pre-processing.</p

Sorted skills based on manually named topics according to CTM.

Sorted skills based on manually named topics according to CTM.</p