The Future of Software Engineering: A Conversation with Norha Villegas
UVic has a new director of the Bachelor of Software Engineering program. One who has spent most of her career convinced that software engineering can change people's lives, not just their apps.
When Norha Villegas decided to study software engineering in 1997, code interested her less than the chance to shape how technology serves society. Her path took her through a master's in IT management, then a PhD in computer science, then nine years leading the software engineering program at Universidad ICESI in Cali, Colombia. She helped build it into one of the most respected programs in the country, then went on to lead a full engineering, design and science faculty as dean.
She arrives at UVic at a moment when enrolment in software engineering programs has softened across the country, and headlines keep asking whether AI is making the degree less valuable. Villegas has heard versions of that question before, and she has thought hard about her answer. It starts with what she believes the job actually is, and why she believes it matters more now, not less.
A Vision for UVic's Software Engineering Program
Villegas is candid about her ambitions for the program. She wants UVic's Bachelor of Software Engineering to be recognized as the strongest in Canada, measured by the talent it produces and how well it works with industry. That means deepening co-op partnerships, sharpening the skills students graduate with, and putting Victoria and BC more firmly on the map for software engineering talent.
"The program is a platform for transforming lives and generating impact, for people and for the planet," she said. It is this thinking that drove her into the field in 1997, and the same approach she used for nearly a decade at ICESI: a software engineering program succeeds when its graduates build things that matter, not just when enrolment numbers hold steady.
What Makes Software Engineering Different From Other Computing Programs
Villegas is asked often how software engineering differs from computer science or computer engineering. "When we talk about software engineering, it's important not to limit the conversation to coding or software development. Those are just small parts of it," she said. "You can develop software in any of the three professions. Software engineering is different in that its professionals architect the entire solution, integrate all the components, including those created by computer scientists and computer engineers, and ensure that the system behaves as expected by users and organizations as a whole unit, while adding value. Individual software components do cool things, but well-engineered software systems power our world."
The software engineering field follows an international framework built around five competencies: the ability to conceive, design, implement, operate, and evolve a software system over its full lifecycle. UVic's program teaches all five, alongside the professional skills that go with them, including teamwork, leadership, engineering economics, project management, and critical thinking. "We don't educate our software engineers just for technical skills, but also for the professional abilities so that they can be the most impactful," Villegas said.
The breadth of the program is supported by two things many degrees don't offer: accreditation and co-op. UVic's program is one of about 15 accredited software engineering programs in Canada, and one of only two in BC, alongside Thompson Rivers University. It also requires a minimum of 16 months of co-op, four full work terms, before graduation.
"Our co-op students graduate with real, paid industry experience already on their resumes. They start their careers well ahead of their peers," Villegas said.
Why Software Engineering Enrolment Has Dropped
Villegas has a clear explanation for why software engineering enrolment has softened, and it starts before AI entered the picture. During the pandemic, businesses that had never needed an online presence suddenly did, and demand for software talent jumped faster than the supply of trained engineers could keep up. Companies hired aggressively, sometimes well beyond what the market could sustain, bringing in people who could code without always having the deeper engineering expertise the field depends on.
"That demand was always going to level off," Villegas said. When it did, many companies cut staff quickly. Generative AI tools arrived around the same time, so it became easy to blame AI instead of seeing a hiring cycle correcting itself. The layoffs made headlines well beyond tech, and a story took hold that software engineering itself was shrinking.
Villegas does not deny that AI can now do some of the work junior engineers used to do. Many entry-level coding tasks involve finding patterns in information, and AI is good at that. But she said this changes the job more than it shrinks it. "Software engineers don't only code. That's one phase of the lifecycle," she said. Code written quickly without proper engineering judgment tends not to hold up. It is harder to change later, and businesses are learning that cheap, disposable software does not scale. AI cannot negotiate requirements or weigh trade-offs the way a trained engineer can, and Villegas said that judgment will matter even more as AI takes over the repetitive parts of the job.
There are signs the job market is recovering. Software engineering job openings at major tech companies have been climbing globally through 2026, and some large employers have resumed growing their engineering teams. By the time today's students finish their degrees and 16 months of co-op, they'll be graduating into a market with years more time to recover, not the one making headlines right now.
How AI Is Changing the Software Engineer's Job
Villegas doesn’t believe that AI competes directly with software engineers. She sees it as a tool that extends what one engineer can do, provided they already know the fundamentals. "AI augments our capability as software engineers. It doesn't replace it," she said. "I have augmented my own capacity to produce software systems, but I needed to know software engineering first."
This is why she wants students to learn to code without AI before they lean on it. Writing good code is itself a design exercise: deciding what data structures to use, how a system might need to change later, and what trade-offs a choice creates. Without understanding this step, a student can get an answer from an AI tool without knowing whether it's the right one.
As AI takes over more of the repetitive work, engineers spend more time looking at how AI tools and people work together by setting direction, defining safeguards, and reviewing what gets built for security, architecture, and long-term reliability. When companies say they need fewer junior engineers, Villegas understands that as a change in what an entry-level engineer must know, not a declining need for new graduates. Large systems still need people who can architect and verify them, even when AI writes the first draft.
Software systems also aren't confined to the tech sector. They run healthcare systems, transportation networks, education platforms, and banks, which is where Villegas sees the field's long-term relevance. "We have a huge opportunity to affect how the future looks," she said.
Advice for Students Considering Software Engineering
Villegas's advice to a student weighing the degree right now is to separate the noise of the last few years from what the field actually asks of its graduates. The anxiety is real, she said, but it's largely a reaction to a hiring bubble and its correction, not evidence that the discipline itself is disappearing. Software still runs the systems that matter most to how people live and work, and someone still has to be able to conceive, build, and evolve them responsibly.
She also wants prospective students to know what they're walking into at UVic specifically: a program built for 16 months of real industry experience before graduation, in one of the tech sector's fastest-growing regions. "To generate impact, we have to strengthen our local sector with our talent," she said. "Victoria has a vibrant tech environment, and we can help it grow."