Open Access

Jos Höll, Tim Geiger, Dennis SchlegelORCiD

• Choosing a degree programme is one of the most important decisions in the life of a young adult and influences not only their professional future but also their personal development. Business informatics (WI) is a study programme on the interface of business administration (BA) and computer science (CS). Although there is a shortage of IT specialists in Germany, WI has a declining number of first-year students. To generate a deeper understanding of the choice for or against the study programme WI, the aim of this paper is to analyse the perception of business informatics by students from different disciplines. A distinction is made between WI students (i.e. those who have decided to study WI) and students from other disciplines (i.e. those who have decided not to study WI). A quantitative survey was conducted with students from different disciplines. The findings of this study offer important implications for universities and student advisory services, which can contribute to the development of targeted measures to increase the attractiveness of WI degree programmes and the number of applicants. In the long term, this could help to counteract the shortage of skilled labour in the IT sector.