IBM and its partnerships with colleges and universities are now focused on fostering data scientists amid a growing need for big data and analytics expertise, InformationWeek reported Wednesday.

Ellis Booker writes the technology company hopes the perceptive shift in recent years will increase the number of computer science graduates who can qualify to set up big data systems, analyze the information and present them for collaboration.

IBM’s Academic Initiative program, which includes over 1,000 educational institutions from all over the world, continues to grow, with nine new schools added to the roster in September alone.

It has been providing its solutions and case studies to students at no charge for nine years, and lends team members to lecture at schools and consult in curriculum development.

The company also emphasizes software engineering, mobile and cloud computing, and other related fields of studies, program manager Meredith Stowell told InformationWeek.

“Typically, we worked with computer science programs, but with the advent of analytics and big data, we’re getting into the business school,” she said.

According to Stowell, data science has also started to show up in minors, concentrations and majors of undergraduate programs, and even the K-12 sector.