Ask Northeastern students where they’ve learned the most — their co-op or their classes — and most will say the former. This is not an exaggeration, but a reflection of how quickly the world moves in comparison to the university’s course catalog.
During a student’s co-op, they could be learning skills that are rapidly being adopted in today’s world, such as cloud architecture, AI integration and data engineering. But the classroom often lags a few steps behind, stuck in theoretical models and legacy programming. For a school that prides itself on being directly connected to global innovation, the growing gap between what is taught in class and industry raises an important question: Is Northeastern’s curriculum keeping up with the technologies that will dominate its students’ futures?
Despite Northeastern’s reputation as an innovative, industry-aligned university, many of its STEM courses continue to exclusively teach theory rather than practice. In computer science specifically, students often learn outdated tools or abstract concepts that do not align with the technology used in their co-ops.
Most companies nowadays use some form of cloud infrastructure, with systems like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud dominating the modern tech landscape. This is a tool that is noticeably absent from the Northeastern undergraduate school curriculum, only existing in the graduate school.
Artificial intelligence is another growing technology, and while Northeastern does offer AI courses, they mostly cover the basics without showing how these technologies are actually used in real projects or the ethical issues that come with them. Additionally, these courses aren’t available for just anyone — oftentimes, a student has to be enrolled in upper level courses in order to get this exposure. For example, CS4100, HLTH5800 and ART6460 are all AI-centered courses, but they require extensive prerequisites. Other courses simply outright ban AI use in the classroom.
Meanwhile, students on co-op are learning these technology skills firsthand.
To be fair, it isn’t hard to understand why classroom learning often falls behind what students experience on co-op. Universities move slow by nature, and it can take a long time to update courses. Curriculum updates or adding new courses can take months or even years to approve, while technology in industry evolves almost overnight.
Professors are often tasked with balancing research commitments and teaching, which means they may prioritize theory or long-term principles over teaching the newest tools and technologies. And honestly, this makes sense — no class can keep up with every new software update or technology. By the time a course is published, a new technology has probably already replaced the need for it. However, these challenges don’t excuse the widening gap between classroom learning and industry. Instead, they highlight the urgency for Northeastern and other universities to rethink how they teach fast-moving fields like AI and data science.
The gap between classroom learning and co-op experiences has real consequences for students. Many students rely heavily on their coursework to prepare them not only for the workplace, but for the technical interviews that determine whether they’ll get the job in the first place. Especially today, when the job market is becoming more and more competitive. If students don’t learn the necessary skills in class, how will they thrive in the corresponding corporate environment? While Northeastern’s co-op program often fills some of these gaps by giving students the hands-on experience they need, it is still a problem. At the end of the day, Northeastern should be regarded as a university first. Its classes are its core offering, and if students leave feeling that their most valuable learning came from co-op rather than the classroom, that signals a serious imbalance. Co-op should reinforce what’s taught in class, not replace it.
While Northeastern does an amazing job teaching students how to learn — picking up new skills, problem-solving, and adapting to emerging technologies — there are several ways it can help close the gap between the skills learned on co-op and the skills learned in the classroom. For one, the university could encourage professors to operate “panels” where industry experts come into the classroom and advise on course content and how it connects to the workforce, ensuring that students are able to apply their knowledge to skills that are actually used in the workplace.
Another idea is to offer short, flexible classes — perhaps two to four weeks — focused on emerging tools, software or technologies. Professors can encourage students to share real-world projects or challenges in class to make the classroom material feel more relevant.
Finally, and most importantly, giving students a voice in suggesting course updates would help ensure that the curriculum reflects the needs of those actually using the skills. If Northeastern wants its students to stay at the cutting edge, it needs to make sure students are learning the skills they actually use — in class and at work.
Shreya Pillamari is a third-year computer science and business administration major. She can be reached at [email protected].
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