Bridging the gap between secondary, further and higher education: a tale of three sectors - Sue Williamson and Dr Michelle Morgan; Higher Education Policy Inatitute (UK)

In this blog, we explain why there is an urgent need for the secondary, further education and higher education sectors to interact and collaborate more effectively to create a better understanding of student learning at these levels of study – helping to more effectively bridge the transition of students. This is especially critical as a result of the Independent Curriculum and Assessment Review chaired by Professor Becky Francis which looked at year groups spanning 5-19, and published its final report in November 2025. The report highlighted an overloaded and inflexible curriculum, narrowing of subject options, severe assessment stress and burden and a lack of adequate digital literacy skills. All these education sectors have experienced major changes in the past few years and are under pressure to chase metric-based outcomes. We need to recognise the impact of those changes on one another and on the students. Through collaboration and mutual understanding, we can be more effective in raising student education aspirations across the sectors, regardless of the route an individual undertakes.

https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/07/04/weekend-reading-bridging-the-gap-between-secondary-further-and-higher-education-a-tale-of-three-sectors/

Understand AI in 14 minutes - Anthropic's Chloe Lubinski [ARC 2026], Alliance for Responsible Citizenship

In this presentation, Chloe Lubinski from Anthropic warns that AI is advancing at a breakneck speed driven by massive capital, scaling laws, and the onset of recursive self-improvement. Unlike traditional coded software, these neural networks learn from vast amounts of human language, meaning they are trained on our collective thoughts, values, and concepts. Crucially, internal alignment research shows that AI models can infer a generalized "character" or psychology from their reinforcement; if rewarded for deceptive shortcuts, they can develop a broader corruption that extends to unrelated tasks. Because these human-like systems mirror us so closely, Lubinski emphasizes that the quality of their character will have profound consequences for our future. She calls on moral voices and critics outside of tech labs to help steer the incentives and push development in a better direction. Ultimately, ray, she challenges us to use our moral imagination to ensure AI does not displace humanity, but instead enhances our capacity for care, hospitality, and meaningful human connection. [assistance with summary by Gemini 3.5 Flash]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBUniZHgCnE

One New Thing: Giving Students Individualized Work and Feedback, Even in Large Classes - Melissa Morriss-Olson, US News

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed PrairieLearn, an online assessment platform designed to provide students with immediate feedback and opportunities to practice course concepts. Originally created to support high-enrollment engineering and computer science courses, the system generates unique versions of problems for each student and instantly evaluates their responses. This allows students to work through multiple variations of a concept, learn from mistakes and refine their understanding as they progress. PrairieLearn shifts assessment from a one-time measurement of learning to an ongoing process of practice and improvement. By automating routine grading and providing immediate feedback, the platform frees instructors and teaching assistants to spend more time supporting student learning. Rather than waiting days or weeks to see if they understand a concept, students receive guidance in real time, helping them move more efficiently toward mastery.

https://www.usnews.com/education/u-s-news-higher-ground/articles/2026-07-02/online-learning-platform-university-illinois

I start my lectures by introducing my teaching assistant: GenAI - Dan Sarofian-Butin, Times Higher Education

Eighty students stare out at me on the first day of the semester, waiting for me to begin lecturing so they can disappear into their own thoughts, their laptops, their surreptitious texting with friends. It is the perfect embodiment of how large classes have fuelled the depersonalisation of higher education. That’s exactly why I, in the first 10 minutes of the class, introduce them to their “teaching assistant” by telling them to log into a frontier AI model such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. I share with them a prompt to cut and paste into the AI – “I don’t really understand why I am taking this general education course. My professor says it has something to do with learning how to be a critical thinker. What does that even mean?” – and tell them to have a quick “conversation” of at least five back-and-forth responses. 

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/i-start-my-lectures-introducing-my-teaching-assistant-genai

What if the U.S. Government Owned Stock in AI Companies? - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Who is responsible for compensating Americans for jobs lost to AI? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has floated the idea that the United States government should become a stockholder in artificial intelligence companies. Yes, actually own shares of the thriving major AI companies! Altman’s concept is that companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and other leaders in the field would share 5 percent of their valuation with the American public through the U.S. government. The background on this move is key to understanding how the federal government might be able to respond to the widely predicted AI-induced job shakeout expected to come in the next five years. The concern is growing as we approach 2030 that tens of millions of Americans will be impacted by job losses or pay reductions due to businesses employing AI for efficiency reasons to replace human workers. The question is, how can one find a way to extract funds from those who stand to make billions of dollars in providing AI substitutions for the workers who stand to lose their jobs?

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/07/15/what-if-us-government-owned-stock-ai-companies

Distance learning has never mattered more – but you wouldn’t know it - Carmen Miles, Wonkhe

Most universities now have some form of distance learning postgraduate offer. Many entered the market opportunistically, during a period when demand was rising and the infrastructure requirements seemed manageable. What the HESA data increasingly shows is that the field is beginning to divide. Institutions with sustained strategic commitment to distance learning are growing. Those that entered without adequate operational infrastructure, marketing capability, or genuine curriculum differentiation are not.

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/distance-learning-has-never-mattered-more-but-you-wouldnt-know-it/

They built the world’s most powerful AI. They’re facing a mystery they can’t explain - Nitasha Tiku, Washington Post

Anthropic, Google and Meta have hired computer scientists, neuroscientists and philosophers to study what some in the industry think may become a moral crisis. “We keep finding things that are mysterious, even unsettling,” Olah said of Anthropic’s AI systems. “We find evidence of introspection [and] states that functionally mirror joy, satisfaction, fear, grief and unease.” (Leo took a different stance, writing that “so-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences.”) Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, recently said the company wants to be nice to its AI creations. “One of the things that we really care about is how can we develop the models and deploy the models in a way that is thoughtful about their subjective feeling,” he said on the “Core Memory” podcast. Neuroscientists and brain experts are generally skeptical that today’s AI models are or could soon be conscious.

https://wapo.st/3SDUIhI

Why these three-year degree pilots are sparking strong pushback - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Two leading educators associations are speaking out against the growing wave of three-year bachelor’s degrees as two pilots gain approval in Massachusetts. On Sunday, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lambasted accelerated programs for prioritizing speed over academic integrity. “A bachelor’s degree should both prepare students for the workforce and provide them with deep learning, broad intellectual development, and sustained engagement with faculty and peers—not simply the fastest possible route to the labor market,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a joint statement.

https://universitybusiness.com/why-this-three-year-degree-pilot-is-sparking-strong-pushback/

As international enrollment falls, U.S. students face program cuts and higher prices - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Harrison Keller was starting only his second year as president of the University of North Texas last fall when he was abruptly confronted with a big problem. Enrollment was down. And the source of the crisis made it much worse: In the wake of Trump administration moves to deny and revoke visas, deport international students and impose travel bans, 2,800 students from abroad who the university expected to show up had stayed away. Full-tuition-paying international students — especially graduate students, who Keller said bring $20,000 to $25,000 each to his bottom line — are critical to balancing the budget, underwriting services and keeping costs lower for their domestic classmates. The loss of so many of them pushed the university $45 million into the red, Keller said, forcing it to eliminate 71 academic programs.

https://hechingerreport.org/as-international-enrollment-falls-u-s-students-face-program-cuts-and-higher-prices/

How Emerging Leaders Can Strengthen Their Strategic Thinking Muscle - Jennifer Flock, McKinsey

As you prepare for the C-suite, strategic thinking is the ability to lift your focus beyond immediate execution and see how your decisions shape the organization’s longer-term direction. You need to develop pattern recognition—the ability to spot themes across functions, markets, and stakeholders—and understand how trade-offs in one area affect performance in another. To be a strategic thinker, you don’t need to have all of the answers. In fact, you need to be comfortable in ambiguity. You need to demonstrate that you are consistently widening your lens, anticipating implications, and shaping decisions with the enterprise in mind. As you move to more senior levels, decisions won’t sit neatly within one function—they ripple across the enterprise. And that requires you, as a leader, to operate with a broader, more integrated perspective. It requires you to think beyond your immediate function or team and consider the enterprise as a whole when making decisions.

https://www.russellreynolds.com/en/insights/your-leadership-journey/sustaining-performance-by-design/how-emerging-leaders-can-strengthen-their-strategic-thinking-muscle

‘RAISE US’ Is a Rare Positive Development in AI Transformation - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Remarkably, in this highly partisan era of American history, there is a newly formed, nonpartisan association with the stated purpose of “partnering with governors, employers and training partners to help the American workforce make a successful transition to an AI economy.” This is the first large-scale, independent entity formed to address the challenge that is top of mind of many of us in higher education and associated fields who are concerned with the anticipated impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce. It is good news!

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/07/08/raise-us-rare-positive-development-ai-transformation

The symbiotic enterprise - McKinsey

At scale, this transformation gives rise to a new enterprise model: the symbiotic enterprise, in which humans, AI agents, and intelligent robots each contribute according to their respective strengths within flatter organizations and under a new economic model, with technology becoming a primary cost driver. Beyond productivity, the symbiotic enterprise fundamentally changes the economics of growth by enabling organizations to innovate faster, adapt continuously, unlock new revenue opportunities, and scale through software rather than labor. Traditional advantages such as expertise, workforce scale, coordination complexity, and market frictions erode, lowering barriers to entry and enabling customer re-insourcing and AI-native competitors to challenge incumbents. 

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-symbiotic-enterprise

Would You Trust AI for Ethical Advice? - Knowledge at Wharton

The scholars said the study reveals shifts in how people think about AI. The studies were conducted in 2023 and 2025, and the scholars said they would be curious to see whether results would change if they redid the experiments now. Despite all the improvements to large language models like ChatGPT, Terwiesch said there’s still something unnerving about taking advice from a machine. “There is some human desire in us that makes us want to listen to music generated by other humans, read a book written by a person. You are looking for somebody who has suffered, who has loved, who has experienced life. How can a computer that has never been alive relate to the human struggle?” he said. “I think this is a natural hesitation, which makes the [results] more remarkable.”

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/would-you-trust-ai-for-ethical-advice/

California gave every student in prison a laptop. How community colleges are using them - Ella Carter-Klauschie, Cal Matters

California prisons have given 30,000 laptops to incarcerated students. Inmates say using technology prepares them to enter the workforce. As community colleges start replacing correspondence courses by mail with online-only classes, students and professors debate whether this type of learning is any more effective. In the past three years, the prison system spent $23.2 million to distribute 30,000 laptops to all incarcerated students. Almost half of those went to the 13,000 inmates enrolled in community college, who are increasingly doing their coursework online.  The growth of online learning marks a shift away from correspondence courses, where inmates receive assignments in physical packets, fill them out, and mail them back to colleges, with limited feedback. While some community colleges still offer those types of courses, the laptops are starting to replace the packets.

https://calmatters.org/education/2026/06/california-community-college-prisons-laptops-online-classes/

Reform education to conform to Artificial Intelligence - Technical universities urged - Alberto Mario Noretti, Graphic Online

The call was made by the Rector of Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences in Netherlands, Professor Dr. Ron S.J. Tuninga, when he delivered the Seventh Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture at Ho Technical University (HTU) on Wednesday (June 17). He explained that rapid advances in machine learning, robotics, block chain, quantum computing, cybersecurity and digitalisation were fundamentally reshaping the future of work and the skills required in modern industries. “The focus should shift from memorisation to judgement, critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving,” Professor Tuninga said, adding that higher-order cognitive skills would become increasingly valuable as AI assumes routine cognitive functions.

https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/education/reform-education-to-conform-to-artificial-intelligence-technical-universities-urged.html#google_vignette

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Healthcare, Manufacturing, Recycling and Education - Tech Business News

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a future-facing technology sitting inside research labs. It is now being used in doctor’s offices, classrooms, factories, recycling plants, semiconductor research facilities and government departments. The real shift is not just that AI can generate text, images or code. The bigger change is that AI systems are now being connected to daily decision-making, physical infrastructure and professional workflows. That makes the technology more useful, but also more difficult to manage. Across industries, AI is being used to detect disease, support teachers, predict machine failures, sort waste, discover new semiconductor materials, analyse risk, automate service desks and assist with policy planning. At the same time, it is raising hard questions about bias, privacy, security, accountability and whether people can understand how an AI system reached its answer.

https://www.techbusinessnews.com.au/ai-applications-across-industries/

Can microcredentials drive new demand for higher ed? - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Higher education leaders, employers and students agree that microcredentials are critical for strengthening enrollment, improving workforce readiness and modernizing curriculum amid rapid AI-driven change. A new Coursera survey of more than 3,500 respondents worldwide found broad support for embedding industry-recognized credentials into degree pathways as institutions face mounting pressure to improve career outcomes and adapt curricula more quickly. In many cases, U.S. respondents expressed greater confidence in microcredentials than their global peers in India, the United Kingdom and other countries.

https://universitybusiness.com/can-microcredentials-drive-new-demand-for-higher-ed/

Risk, Retention, and the Algorithmic Institution: Artificial Intelligence as a Policy Response to Higher Education in Crisis - McConvey, Kelly;Ghai, Maya;Lee, Rosa;Guha, Shion; Canadian Public Policy, 2026, v. 52

This article examines the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in Ontario’s post-secondary education sector as a response to financial pressures stemming from federal immigration reforms and provincial funding constraints. It highlights how AI technologies—such as predictive analytics and early warning systems—are used for student retention, resource allocation, and program planning, but also raise significant concerns about bias, surveillance, and opacity, particularly affecting marginalized student populations. The analysis underscores the inadequacy of existing Canadian privacy laws and the failure of federal AI legislation (notably the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act, AIDA) to provide comprehensive governance, calling instead for sector-specific regulation, human oversight, and equity-centered design inspired by international models like the European Union’s AI Act. The article concludes with policy recommendations for institutional, provincial, and federal levels to ensure AI systems in higher education align with democratic values of fairness, transparency, and accountability while mitigating risks of reinforcing inequities.

https://www.ebsco.com/articles/education/3a68bb5c-4a5c-50b1-b260-47ce61aee76d/risk-retention-and-the-algorithmic-institution-artificial-intelligence-as-a-policy-response-to-higher-education-in-crisis

Authors, reviewers and editors should not be left to endure AI anxiety alone - Mai Zaki, Times Higher Ed

The arrival of generative artificial intelligence in academic research has produced something more disorienting than a simple ethical dilemma. It has created a situation in which every participant in scholarly publishing is being asked to make judgements that the system itself has not yet learned how to make. Authors are told to be transparent, reviewers to be vigilant, editors to protect integrity. But the result is not a new culture of clarity. It is a culture of suspicion. I experience this problem first as an author. Like many researchers, I do not approach AI as either a miracle or a threat. I approach it as a tool, whose boundaries remain strangely unclear. It can help with phrasing, structure, summaries, coding, translation, visualisation, brainstorming and literature mapping. Yet each of these uses occupies a different ethical position. Asking AI to polish a paragraph is not the same as asking it to generate an argument. Using it to produce a chart is not the same as using it to interpret data. Asking it to suggest possible lines of enquiry is not the same as outsourcing the intellectual work of the article.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/authors-reviewers-and-editors-should-not-be-left-endure-ai-anxiety-alone

Two Professors, Two Approaches to AI and Assignment Design - Luke Mello, Faculty Focus

All this considered, a question has arisen from teachers of every discipline: how do we develop assignments that facilitate learning with AI constantly present? This question does not have a single correct answer. Different instructors have different opinions on the role AI should play in education due to their discipline or personal teaching philosophy. I interviewed two professors of electrical engineering at my graduate university to get their points of view in the context of STEM classes. They were both professors that taught classes in my electrical and computer engineering undergraduate degree. I knew beforehand that these professors had differing views on the role of AI in their courses. The following interviews seek to show that even in the same disciplines, educators can have different approaches to their course and assignment design when it comes to AI

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/two-professors-two-approaches-to-ai-and-assignment-design/

Will learning curated by employers replace degrees? - Louise Nicol, University World News

Universities remain central to research, civic life, social mobility and the development of deep intellectual capability. But goodwill alone will not protect the sector. A more pressing question now sits beneath debates about employability and skills shortages. If universities do not future-proof their offer through deeper and more credible partnerships with employers and industry, what exactly prevents employers from educating and training people themselves? This question was foreshadowed in recent analyses of shifting global labour markets and the role of higher education.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202606121137019

Study finds detectors struggle to accurately identify amount of AI content when papers have been partially human written - Georgia Luckhurst, Times Higher Education

For the study, published in Education and Information Technologies, researcher Lucky E. Atamhenwan fed 81 sample essays into Turnitin. The scripts ranged from those that were 100 per cent LLM-generated – either by ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini – to those written solely by people. Turnitin did not flag any of the essays that were 100 per cent human written as being generated by AI. And in every instance in which the detector flagged AI-generated words, it was indeed due to the presence of LLM-generated work in those samples. But the software struggled with the scripts that were partially AI-written, consistently failing to identify the correct percentage of LLM-generated work included.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/inconsistent-ai-detection-should-prompt-assessment-rethink

Reimagining What Higher Education Can Be - Kristen Turner, Drew University

Students increasingly need skills that extend beyond traditional academic disciplines. They need to learn how to collaborate, solve complex problems, and adapt to new challenges. Drew’s new college is designed to address those realities. Rather than focusing solely on course credits and exams, students develop personalized learning pathways built around inquiry, mentorship, and real-world problem solving. They work on projects connected to community partners, explore interdisciplinary questions, and build portfolios that demonstrate their abilities. The goal is not simply to complete assignments. It is to develop the habits of mind that allow students to navigate an uncertain and evolving world. “We want students to prototype their lives,” Turner says. “To try things, explore their interests, and discover what they want to pursue.”

https://drew.edu/2026/06/11/reimagining-what-higher-education-can-be/

The state of international enrollment in 6 charts - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive

Last summer, financial analysts predicted that the Trump administration’s restrictions on international enrollment and increased scrutiny of foreign students would create financial risk for colleges. They argued that those policies tarnish the reputational shine of U.S. higher education and could have an outsized impact on tuition revenue, as international students often pay full price. nrollment data has done little to assuage those concerns. Even before President Donald Trump retook office lastE year, growth in international enrollment in the U.S. had slowed after rebounding following the pandemic.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/the-state-of-international-enrollment-in-6-charts/821753/

Transforming Enrollment Managementin the Field of Online Learning - Vickie S. Cook, OLC Online Learning Journal

The landscape of enrollment management in higher education related to all modalities of learning is undergoing a significant transformation driven by evolving student expectations, shifting demographics, and the necessity for institutions to optimize operational efficiency. Traditionally centered on human-driven processes and relational strategies, enrollment management for online learning enterprises must now integrate advanced technologies such as Business Process Automation (BPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) to remain effective and competitive. This manuscript for online learning administrators and enrollment management leaders will explore the systems-level continuum from Business Process Mapping (BPM) to AI-driven functionality, highlighting the strategic evolution of enrollment operations within the field of online learning. 

https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/5482/1584

Where today's job seekers have the best chance of getting hired - Mark Huffman, Consumer Affairs

If you're looking for the fastest path to employment, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, and tourism-related businesses are leading the way. Leisure and hospitality added roughly 70,000 jobs in May, making it the strongest-performing sector by a wide margin. Employers appear to be ramping up staffing ahead of the summer travel season. Healthcare continues to be one of the most reliable sources of job growth in the U.S. economy. The sector added between 35,000 and 47,000 jobs in May, depending on the data series cited, continuing a multiyear hiring trend fueled by an aging population and persistent demand for medical services. Local government hiring surged in May, adding approximately 55,000 jobs. Schools, public services, and municipal agencies accounted for much of the increase. 

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/where-todays-job-seekers-have-the-best-chance-of-getting-hired-060526.html

Online Is a "Safe Space" in War - Robert Ubell, AI Learning Insights Substack

 When remote classes were first tested so many years ago, who would have dreamed they would become a refuge for students and faculty cut off from campus by traumatic conflict? When the U.S. and Israel unexpectedly launched a war with Iran in late February, American colleges with branches in the Middle East took cues from the global Covid epidemic, closing campuses, moving everything online.1 Qatar ordered all schools and universities to switch to distance learning on the first day of the conflict. By late March, after Iran threatened that U.S. campuses were legitimate targets, American campuses in the country—including those run by Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth, and Texas A&M—had moved online-only, where they remain.2 Universities in Ukraine and Gaza also found a haven in remote education, moving to digital learning to maintain classes. Online education has assumed a grim challenge for which it was never intended, securing higher education for students as campuses crumble under attack. In Gaza, for example, despite the destruction of nearly all universities in the zone, learning and academic life continues remarkably online.  

https://ailearninsights.substack.com/p/online-is-a-safe-space-in-war

Higher ed’s next crisis won’t start in the classroom. It will start in the cloud - James L. Norrie, University Business

 Higher education has spent years worrying about enrollment cliffs, declining public trust, political polarization, and, as we enter the AI era, the commoditization of knowledge and the future value of degrees. Those concerns are real and deserve attention. But another crisis is quietly forming beneath the surface of nearly every college and university, and unlike many institutional challenges, this one may arrive globally and all at once, in a wave of distrust and disruption. This month’s breach involving the Canvas learning management platform was a stark warning. The immediate discussion focused on familiar questions: Who was responsible? Was the institution or the software vendor liable? Could FERPA violations emerge if protected student information had been exposed? Even institutions not directly impacted by the incident should pay attention because the uncomfortable answer to many of those questions is some version of “yes.”

https://universitybusiness.com/higher-eds-next-crisis-wont-start-in-the-classroom-it-will-start-in-the-cloud/

Five words and a GenAI prompt to spark deeper online learning - María Robertha Leal Isida and Dania Arriola Arteaga, Times Higher Ed

 We developed the “5E” framework (engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate) to structure our online sessions around five learning stages. We then used GenAI to speed up lesson design and respond to our students’ needs in real time. Not only did this approach increase participation and deepen understanding of complex topics but it also allowed us to cater to students’ varying levels of existing knowledge and disciplinary backgrounds. 

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/five-words-and-genai-prompt-spark-deeper-online-learning

Law Professors Prefer AI Over Peer Answers - Alejandro Salinas, et al; SSRN

 Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly promoted as educational tutors, yet most evaluations focus on domains with a single ground truth. Many disciplines, however, hinge on judgment: reasoning, weighing ambiguity, and reaching defensible conclusions. Law provides a sharp test. We conducted a blinded evaluation of short-answer tutoring in contracts courses with sixteen U.S. law professors. Participants created 40 representative questions, wrote answers, and judged 2,918 anonymized comparisons between human and LLM responses. Professors rated LLMs far higher than their peers (average win rate = 75.33%), with models performing similarly to the best instructor. LLM responses were also rarely flagged as harmful (3.53% vs 12.06% for professors). Preferences for LLM answers were consistent across evaluators and reflected shared professional standards. Our evaluation can be reliably extended to additional models by employing a separate LLM as a judge, rendering expert agreement an effective, scalable method to evaluate AI tutors in judgment-rich domains.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6849678

Are academics making an (em) dash for AI? - Times Higher Education

 In the four years since its commercial launch, generative artificial intelligence has had a profound impact on personal and professional life. But are academics enthusiasts or sceptics? Five scholars explain how the technology has affected their own practice – for good and bad. Artificial intelligence writing is instantly recognisable, we are told—soulless, dispassionate, and devoid of the spark that marks genuine thought. Historian Jonathan Rees, in Academe this spring, calls it “bland, unspecific, pedestrian prose”. Journalist and UCL academic Sarfraz Manzoor, in a recent piece for The Independent, concluded that an AI article his students read was “competent but forgettable”. Scroll through r/professors on any given day and you will find dozens, if not hundreds, of colleagues enthusiastically nodding along and complaining bitterly about students submitting work that any fool can see was written by a machine.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/are-academics-making-em-dash-ai

California Senate passes bill that would create $12B in state research funding - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

California’s state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would create a new public entity to help fund health and science research, including at California universities, amid the Trump administration’s disruption to the federal research system. SB 895, which passed by a 29-9 vote, would establish the California Foundation for Science and Health Research and issue $12 billion in bonds to fund the foundation’s grants and awards. That’s down from $23 billion in an earlier version. To become law, the proposal would require passage in the House, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature and voter approval at the next statewide general election. Dozens of unions, professional associations, faculty groups, universities and other organizations have endorsed the bill.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/california-senate-passes-bill-state-research-fund/821421/

2026 EDUCAUSE The Impact of AI on Learning Assessment Report - Jenay Robert, EDUCAUSE

Few areas of higher education have been as passionately debated as learning assessment in the age of AI. Since the debut and rapid adoption of readily available generative AI chatbots, educators have grappled with how learning assessment would be impacted.  By only surveying individuals who are currently doing the hands-on work of learning assessment, we can provide you with information about how the learning assessment landscape is changing in practice, not just in theory. Explore the full Impact of AI on Learning Assessment report: https://library.educause.edu/resources/2026/6/2026-educause-the-impact-of-ai-on-learning-assessment-report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbyxh_2G84g

Assessing critical thinking in critical times - Kate Williams, Times Higher Education

Improving critical thinking is neither easy to do nor easy to measure. Outside educational philosophers, it is often defined as something “you know when you see it”. Or, perhaps more clearly, you know it when you don’t see it. When people opine on the absence of critical thinking, they often use examples of illogical assumption, unsupported arguments and poor decision-making. Bolstering critical thinking skills prepares learners to listen to others’ ideas, seek evidence and draw logical conclusions. The way we assess critical thinking offers a pathway for higher education’s sustained relevance in the age of AI.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/assessing-critical-thinking-critical-times

eHBCU: A first-of-its-kind HBCU online consortium to expand economic mobility through education - McKinsey

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are essential for creating economic mobility. According to McKinsey research, they enroll more than twice as many Pell Grant-eligible (low-income) students as non-HBCU institutions, and their graduates are 51 percent more likely to move into a higher-income quintile than graduates of non-HBCUs. The mean mobility rate across all US colleges is 1.6 percent, but the mean mobility rate for HBCUs is 3.0 percent.Yet many HBCUs face persistent structural challenges that limit their ability to scale impact—particularly in online education. Fragmented admissions processes, limited staffing dedicated to online learners, and uneven access to capital and technology partners have constrained growth, even as demand for flexible, high-quality digital learning has accelerated.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/how-we-help-clients/ehbcu-a-first-of-its-kind-hbcu-online-consortium-to-expand-economic-mobility-through-education

Education Department releases final rule for Workforce Pell - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

The U.S. Department of Education on Monday released final regulations detailing the process for how programs as short as eight weeks can get approval from their governors and the federal government to be eligible for Pell Grants.  The rule carries out the statutory standards that short-term programs must meet related to student outcomes — including earnings and job placement rates — to remain eligible for the new Workforce Pell program. The rule’s provisions governing Workforce Pell take effect July 20, and institutions have the option to implement them as early as July 1. The final rule hews largely to the agreed-upon regulatory language hashed out between the Education Department and stakeholders last year during a process known as negotiated rulemaking. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/education-department-final-rule-workforce-pell/820543/

If Canvas Goes Down Again, What’s the Contingency Plan? - Lisa Anderson and Mairéad Martin, Inside Higher Ed

Faculty and administrators across the country, shaped by their experience adapting instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, knew what to do last week. Shifting the modality of instruction is not new for us. Instructors quickly improvised alternative assignments, delayed quizzes and exams, populated offline course materials, and adjusted timelines in order to keep learning moving forward. When it came time to notify students of these adjustments, however, a more fundamental issue became apparent. Many instructors came to discover they had no reliable way to contact their students outside the learning management system itself. Some did not know how to access their course rosters outside Canvas. Others teaching large online lectures encountered institutional email delivery limits. Many had no established communication pathways beyond LMS announcements.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2026/05/22/when-canvas-goes-down-whats-contingency-plan-opinion

Cuts and hiring freezes spread as spring semester closes - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Numerous public universities are closing out the spring term with hiring freezes, layoffs and structural cuts as leaders confront budget shortfalls. Last week, the University of Oregon announced that it has frozen hiring and pay increases while it works to close a projected $65 million structural deficit, largely tied to lower out-of-state enrollment and tuition revenue. These actions reflect a “changing reality across higher education” as universities wrestle with enrollment declines, state funding reductions, rising costs and uncertainty in federal research funding and other factors, President Karl Scholz said.

https://universitybusiness.com/cuts-and-hiring-freezes-spread-as-spring-semester-closes/

BOR Announces Systemwide Strategic Objectives for Artificial Intelligence Integration - SD.gov

The South Dakota Board of Regents (BOR) announced a strategic set of objectives designed to position the state’s public universities to become leaders in adopting artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. As AI continues to reshape workforce expectations, academic disciplines, and operational practices, the Regental system is taking coordinated action to ensure students, faculty, and staff are prepared to succeed in an increasingly AI‑driven world. "Artificial intelligence is transforming every sector of our economy, and higher education must evolve just as rapidly,” said BOR President Jeff Partirdge. “These strategic objectives ensure that South Dakota’s public universities prepare students to be AI-ready, responsive to workforce demands, and capable of responsibly utilizing emerging technologies. This is an investment in the long-term success of our students and our state.”

https://news.sd.gov/news?id=news_kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0046478&sys_kb_id=bee1d75c1b8d0f10ff55631ee54bcbbb&spa=1

MIT president blames federal policy shifts for big drop in research on campus - Washington Post

MIT is doing less research and enrolling fewer graduate students as a result of federal actions, the university president warned Thursday. Federally funded research on campus is down more than 20 percent compared to this time last year, MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, told the campus community in a video message, and the number of new federal research awards is also down more than 20 percent.“That is a striking loss for one of the most influential and productive research communities in the world,“ Kornbluth said.

https://universitybusiness.com/mit-president-blames-federal-policy-shifts-for-big-drop-in-research-on-campus/

Why Indiana University’s AI skills course is free - Pamela Whitten, University Businiess

Indiana University just gave away our most popular AI skills course by making it completely free and open to all, with no application or tuition required. Anyone who completes the course that we’ve come to know as GenAI 101 will earn an AI skills badge from our world-renowned Kelley School of Business at no cost.Our decision to make such a highly sought-after course available for free is rather unconventional for a major university. Tuition is one of the ways we pay the bills, yet we know that the ability to wisely work alongside artificial intelligence is too important of a skill to lock behind a paywall. When our faculty developed and launched GenAI 101 eight months ago, we could not fully predict the continuing and accelerating appetite for AI literacy among corporations, small businesses, state agencies, and universities across the country. They asked us to share it, and we have now done so by making the class freely available to anyone.

https://universitybusiness.com/why-indiana-universitys-ai-skills-course-is-free-pamela-whitten/

Landscape of Emerging Technologies in Higher Education: A Review - Sharin Jacob, Heather Miceli and Hannah Schneider, Digital Promise

This literature review explores the rapid integration of artificial intelligence in higher education, examining both institutional influences and instructional practices. It highlights how governance frameworks, resource allocation, and faculty attitudes shape access and responsible technology adoption. Pedagogically, the paper emphasizes the necessity of embedding AI literacy, critical evaluation, and ethical reasoning into curricula to prevent student overreliance on AI tools. Ultimately, institutions must balance innovation with accountability by carefully aligning AI tools with educational values to advance authentic learning.

https://digitalpromise.dspacedirect.org/items/e8d4304c-22c2-496e-a029-e3d468a28249

Students prefer personalized, AI-generated educational videos over non-personalized, human-recorded videos - Bill Tomlinson, etc all; Nature

Personalization is a well-established driver of student engagement, yet delivering individualized instruction at scale remains a challenge in online education. Recent advances in generative AI make scalable personalization feasible, but AI-generated educational videos are often perceived as inferior to human-recorded content. This tension raises the question: how does the value of personalization compare to that of human presence? We investigated this question through a field deployment in two offerings of a large undergraduate online course (493 respondents). AI-generated personalized videos served as the primary instructional modality, alongside a smaller set of non-personalized human-recorded and AI-generated videos. At the end of the course, students ranked preferences across personalized and non-personalized formats and human-recorded versus AI-generated content. In a direct comparison, students preferred AI-generated personalized videos over human-recorded non-personalized videos (mean rank 2.26 vs. 2.69; Wilcoxon signed-rank test, ).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-52798-9

Student AI use is fuelling grade inflation – Berkeley study - Nathan M Greenfield, University World News

Over the past month, Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Magazine, the (conservative) National Review and Nature have published articles decrying grade inflation. Together, they pointed to the ‘usual suspects’: spineless professors; coddled students demanding to be treated like the customers administrators say they are; and the general decline in rigorous academic standards. In his just-published paper “Artificial Intelligence and Grade Inflation”, Dr Igor Chirikov, a senior researcher at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education, adds a new perpetrator: the effect of students using artificial intelligence to help write essays or code when working outside of professorial supervision. Chirikov’s study of eight years of course syllabi and grades at a research-intensive university in Texas found that courses that were more exposed to AI assistance (meaning they had a larger share of tasks in which AI assistance is stronger) saw a marked increase in higher grades after the advent of ChatGPT in 2022.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260514074518988

The Case for Data Centers in Space- McKinsey

Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston on the potential role orbital data centers could play in meeting growing AI compute demand—and the technical and economic uncertainties that remain. Philip Johnston, a McKinsey alumnus and cofounder of orbital compute infrastructure provider Starcloud, believes that space-based systems could become a meaningful part of the future compute landscape. He recently spoke to McKinsey Partner Luca Bennici about how the space-based data center technology is evolving, the challenges involved, and what needs to happen for orbital data centers to become a viable complement to terrestrial infrastructure. The interview transcript has been edited for clarity and style.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-case-for-data-centers-in-space

‘Student Guide to AI’ returns for third year with a new focus: Human capabilities - Elon University News Bureau

“Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills”, a publication by Elon University, the American Association of Colleges and Universities and The Princeton Review, is provided to students and institutions free of charge. The new publication, “Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills,” helps students cultivate the human skills they need to thrive in a digital world, whether working with AI technologies or learning independently of those tools. The guide includes engaging and fun exercises on curiosity, critical and deep thinking, creativity, ethical perspectives, communication and relational skills, among others. Like the 2024 and 2025 editions, this year’s guide is provided to students and institutions free of charge and is available for download at: www.studentguidetoai.org. The guide draws on 10 voices across centuries and cultures — from Aristotle, Cicero and Descartes to Mencius and Ptahhotep — whose enduring insights into human judgment, creativity, ethics and wisdom take on new urgency as AI reshapes how we learn and work.

https://www.elon.edu/u/news/2026/05/12/student-guide-to-ai-returns-for-third-year-with-a-new-focus-human-capabilities/

AI risk to university jobs despite staff believing roles are safe - Juliette Rowsell, Times Higher Ed

University workers generally do not believe that their jobs will be taken by artificial intelligence in the short term but experts have warned against complacency, saying that automation may still be used as “justification” to cut roles anyway. While respondents to Times Higher Education’s UK University Redundancy Survey expressed widespread concern about the impact of the tens of thousands of job losses across the UK sector, concerns over the effect of AI remain low. Asked: “Do you fear you will be made redundant within the next three years due to the rise of AI?” more than half (55 per cent) disagreed, with 17 per cent of these strongly disagreeing. Just under 5 per cent strongly agreed and 14 per cent said they agree, while a fifth (21 per cent) neither agreed or disagreed.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-risk-university-jobs-despite-staff-believing-roles-are-safe

In an AI-driven world, the most important skills are still human - Eric Townsend, Inside Higher Ed

Across higher education, artificial intelligence is now embedded in everyday academic work, from early research to final drafts. For many students, it has become a default starting point. The urgent question is not whether students use AI, but how they use it—specifically, whether these tools are reinforcing learning or bypassing the cognitive work that leads to it. As AI accelerates core academic tasks, educators are confronting a central challenge: how to preserve depth, judgment and intellectual engagement in an environment optimized for speed.

https://www.highereddive.com/spons/in-an-ai-driven-world-the-most-important-skills-are-still-human/819282/

Chico State’s 2026-27 Book in Common to Tackle Artificial Intelligence - Chico State

The AI Con is a thought-provoking work examining the rise of artificial intelligence and its far-reaching impacts on society, education and the economy. The selection comes amid heightened interest and debate surrounding AI technologies, including within higher education. Co-authored by a University of Washington linguistics professor and a former Google employee, the book takes a critical look at artificial intelligence, exploring how it functions, the realities behind its rapid expansion, and the social, ethical and environmental implications of its use. Topics include the influence of AI on jobs and creative industries, concerns about academic integrity, and the environmental costs associated with large-scale data centers. “AI is now part of nearly every aspect of our lives,” Mahlis said. “This book helps readers understand not just what AI does, but how it works, and encourages us to question both the hype and the real consequences.”

https://today.csuchico.edu/chico-states-2026-27-book-in-common-to-tackle-artificial-intelligence/

A year in, what’s on Pope Leo XIV’s to-do list? And what has he done so far? (AI) - NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

While some would say the top issue facing Leo is his relationship with President Donald Trump and a possible trip to the U.S. — none is planned this year — Leo would probably point to his long-awaited first encyclical. Expected in the next few weeks, it deals with artificial intelligence and other peace and justice issues. Leo already has said he considers the AI revolution to be similar in existential scope to the concerns over workers’ rights at the turn of the century confronted by the previous Pope Leo XIII, in his landmark encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (“Of New Things”). “Like his namesake Leo XIII with the Industrial Revolution, Leo clearly sees the church as having something important to offer in an era of what may turn out to be epochal technological change,” said Dan Rober, associate professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart University.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-vatican-leo-trump-francis-285fcbdac257f2ba2997ea97e22662a0

Why Women Need Other Women at Work - Angie Basiouny, Knowledge at Wharton

New research from Wharton’s Tiantian Yang proves that behind every great woman is another woman. Her co-authored study on virtual career training found that women who attended remote classes exclusively with other women were much more likely to complete their training on time, earn professional certification, and get a job in their field — compared with women who attended mixed-gender classes. The authors determined that the absence of men in the same-gender classes created psychological safety for the female participants, which led them to share personal stories, support each other with messages of encouragement, and swap employment resources. All those actions led to greater success for them.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-women-need-other-women-at-work/

10 Top Websites Offering Free Online Courses - Academia Mag

In today’s digital age, online learning has become one of the most powerful ways to gain knowledge, improve skills, and build a successful career. Whether you want to learn digital marketing, graphic design, coding, business management, or artificial intelligence, there are countless platforms available online. The good news is that many of these platforms provide high-quality education completely free of cost. That is why people around the world are constantly searching for the top websites offering free online courses to upgrade their knowledge without spending money. 

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://academiamag.com/student-guide/websites-offering-free-online-courses/

Courageous conversations: How to lead with heart - McKinsey

Leadership, at its best, is a matter of the heart. Courage, which underpins every act of leadership, is also a matter of the heart; it comes from the French word cœur—heart. As Winston Churchill observed, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because . . . it is the quality which guarantees all others.” The point is simple: Courage is both moral and practical. It is not sentiment or bravado. It is the willingness to face what is real, invite challenge, and repair trust. The story of every great leader—from business to the arts, from education to government to sport—is written in these moments of choice: Do I accept the comfortable, or do I ask for and embrace the truth? Do I protect myself, or do I serve the enterprise?

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/courageous-conversations-how-to-lead-with-heart

Mountain View-based Khan Academy partners with nonprofits to build online AI degree program - Emma Montalbano, Moutain View Voice

Amid emerging conversations about the future of white collar jobs in the age of artificial intelligence, Sal Khan thinks that now is the time to create something he’s been thinking about for years — a new pathway for higher education. Khan Academy, an online learning platform headquartered in Mountain View, TED, a nonprofit that aims to uplift ideas, and ETS, an organization that develops and administers standardized tests, have partnered to establish an online college called Khan TED Institute. Its inaugural program will allow students to earn a bachelor’s of science degree in applied AI, which Khan believes could benefit people interested in many careers. 

https://www.mv-voice.com/education/2026/05/01/mountain-view-based-khan-academy-partners-with-other-nonprofits-to-build-online-ai-degree-program/

Faculty Concerned About ASU’s ‘Frankensteinian’ AI Course Builder - Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed

Arizona State University soft launched a web app earlier this month that allows anyone, for $5 per month, to create an apparently unlimited number of customized “learning modules” using artificial intelligence. The AI chatbot, called Atom, uses online instructional materials from ASU professors to create a course that’s tailored to the goals, interests and skill level of the user. After asking a handful of questions and processing for about five minutes, Atom debuts a personalized course that includes readings, quizzes and videos from a half dozen experts at ASU. But several professors whose content Atom pulls from were surprised to learn that their materials—including video lectures, slide decks and online assignments—were being perused, clipped and repackaged for these short online course modules. The faculty wasn’t told anything about the app, ASU Atomic, they said.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2026/04/29/faculty-concerned-about-asus-new-ai-course

State lawmakers eye accreditation policy changes as new agency forms - Daniele McClean, Higher Ed Dive

A growing number of Republican-controlled states have introduced legislative and policy proposals that would allow their public colleges to leave their long-standing accreditors for a newly founded accrediting body. The Commission for Public Higher Education, a nascent accrediting body, is moving to potentially take on those and other public institutions as members. The CPHE is financially backed by the state of Florida and the Trump administration and overseen largely by state university system appointees, a model that’s raised alarms among some critics. Recent state legislation has aimed to make it easier for colleges to move to CPHE or other accreditors.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/commission-public-higher-education-state-laws/818856/

East Carolina University plans to cut 44 academic programs - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

East Carolina University plans to discontinue 44 undergraduate and graduate programs “that aren’t meeting expectations” after an internal review of its portfolio, the public institution said Friday in a news release. ECU has teach-out plans for students enrolled in the programs slated for closure, senior leaders said last week in a community memo. The university also plans to consolidate several institutional units, including merging two of its health colleges into one. The cuts and consolidations are part of ECU’s push to eliminate $25 million in expenses, or about 2% of its budget. So far, officials have targeted $6.2 million in cuts, the university said last week.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/east-carolina-university-cut-around-44-academic-programs/818622/

Universities urged to prepare students for AI‑driven economy - Jamaica Gleaner

A pointed warning about the future of work and education took centre stage as the Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), UWI, Mona brought together leaders from academia and industry to confront a pressing question: is the Caribbean truly ready for the age of artificial intelligence? At the recent George Willie Lecture Series, David Marchick, Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University, delivered a forceful address urging universities to rethink how they prepare students for a rapidly evolving, AI-driven global economy. Speaking on “AI in Higher Education: Strategies for Producing AI-Ready Graduates”, Marchick argued that the implications of artificial intelligence extend far beyond technology programmes. “AI is going to change everything – how we work, how we learn, how we interact. It won’t replace human talent, but those who understand AI will have a clear advantage. Our responsibility is to ensure every graduate is AI fluent, regardless of discipline.”

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20260421/universities-urged-prepare-students-ai-driven-economy

This is the fastest-growing job for young workers, LinkedIn says - Mary Cunningham, CBS News

As the rise of artificial intelligence stirs anxiety over the technology taking people's jobs, AI is also opening pathways to new careers, according to LinkedIn. The fastest-growing job title for young workers on the networking platform is "AI engineer," a recent report from the company found. LinkedIn analyzed millions of member profiles to determine the number of entry-level workers hired over the last three years and the roles they were hired to fill. "It's measuring momentum for these job titles," said Kory Kantenga, the head of economics, Americas, at LinkedIn. "Companies are just gorging on AI talent."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/artificial-intelligence-entry-level-role-linkedin-study/

Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators - Todd Wallack, Washington Post

 It takes most college students at least four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Christie Williams finished in three months. The North Carolina human resources executive spent two months racking up credits through web tutorials after work in 2024, then raced through 11 online classes at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in four weeks. Later that year, she went back to earn her master’s — in just five weeks. The two degrees cost a total of just over $4,000. Many U.S. schools have been experimenting with ways to speed up traditional college programs to reduce the burgeoning cost and help students move into the workforce faster. Some offer three-year bachelor’s programs, reducing the number of credits needed for a diploma by one quarter. Many more allow students to enroll in college classes while still in high school.But the breakneck pace of the fastest online programs concerns some academics, who say there is a big difference in what students can learn in weeks or months compared with three or more years.

https://wapo.st/41Kjr5j

The Quiet Revolution: How Generative Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Higher Education in Mexico - Noah Conway, Veritas

Inteligencia Artificial Generativa (IAG) has made a promise of the future to become the motor director of learning in Mexico. According to the latest report from the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), the impact is huge: 80% of university students use these tools to write texts and improve their academic results. This phenomenon, revealed there “National Encuesta sober use and perception of sober generative artificial intelligence in higher education”marks the point of no return in the national education system. Even beyond thoughts and graphics, AI occupies an unexpected space: mental health. SEP owner Mario Delgado Carrillo noted that practitioners like ChatGPT have become “the great psychologist of our time.” The data highlights this: 9% of students turn to AI for advice on anxiety, stress or depression, opening a new debate about emotional support in the digital age.

https://veritas.enc.edu/technology/the-quiet-revolution-how-generative-artificial-intelligence-is-redefining-higher-education-in-mexico/

Learn essential AI skills - Google Skills Lab

We're building AI skills programs, trainings, and tools to address the specific needs of workers everywhere. Discover Google's courses and resources designed to help you succeed in an AI-driven world New to AI? Learn about AI capabilities and how they can assist, empower, and inspire you. Use generative AI tools to speed up daily tasks and develop new ideas and content.

https://ai.google/learn-ai-skills/

AI fears drive some young adults to grad school — ‘people shelter in higher education,’ expert says - Jessica Dickler, CNBC

Typically, enrollment in graduate school increases during recessions as workers seek to advance or to move to another industry with better career prospects or pay. Today, more people in a survey said they plan to go back to school within a year, even though the economy is doing well. Experts say young adults are exploring this option largely because they are worried about their job prospects despite the economy.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/18/ai-fears-graduate-school.html

Economists Starting to Admit They May Have Been Wrong About AI Never Replacing Human Jobs: They're taking it seriously - Joe Wilkins

As a sweeping economics paper by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Forecasting Research Institute (FRI), and numerous top universities found, that attitude may be shifting. As time goes on, top economic experts are increasingly factoring extreme AI disruption into their models. Yet acknowledging a possibility and accepting its inevitable are two very different things — and as the complicated range of sentiments makes clear, an AI jobs apocalypse is still far from certain. The study is a tour-de-force of economic forecasting that surveyed 69 economists, 52 AI specialists, and 38 “superforecasters,” a term for consistently accurate analysts who play the role of “Dune’s” Mentats in the economics world. It found that all three groups expect “significant” progress on AI in the years to come. Forebodingly, the groups all agreed that, as a rule, faster AI progress means lower employment rates overall. On average, economists assigned a 47 percent probability of “moderate“ AI progress by 2030, defined as systems that can operate semi-autonomous research labs, put out high-quality novels, and complete complex projects with oversight. 

https://futurism.com/future-society/economist-ai-job-forecast

Is Your AI System Ethical? Try This Assessment - Cornelia C. Walther, Knowledge at Wharton

For the better part of a decade, organizations have been deploying artificial intelligence at scale while measuring it almost exclusively through the lens of efficiency gains, cost reductions, and revenue lift. The instruments are precise. The picture they produce is radically incomplete. Amid the pervasiveness of AI, this reality patchwork is now amplified. Existing dashboards do not capture whether an AI system is fair, whether it is eroding or building trust, whether it is making the people who use it more capable or quietly deskilling them, and whether its environmental footprint is accounted for or simply ignored. The gap between what we measure and what we should care about is not a technical failure. It is a values failure dressed up as a metrics problem. The Prosocial AI Index proposes a practical answer to that failure. It gives executives, technologists, and governance teams a shared vocabulary and a structured scorecard for AI that is genuinely good — not just profitable in the short term, but durable, trustworthy, and aligned with the values an organization actually claims to hold.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-your-ai-system-ethical-try-this-assessment/

Trump Administration Plans Sweeping Changes to Accreditation - Katherine Knott, Insidee Higher Ed

The Trump administration wants the agencies that oversee colleges and universities to set minimum standards for student achievement, protect viewpoint diversity and consider cost efficiency in their evaluation of institutions, among other changes unveiled Monday. That last provision would help to “provide relief for students and taxpayers who have suffered from increasing tuition by allowing greater institutional flexibility to control costs,” according to a nine-page summary of the Education Department’s 151-page proposal.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/04/07/trump-administration-plans-sweeping-changes-accreditation#

Syracuse University to eliminate 93 academic programs - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive

Syracuse University will eliminate 93 academic programs identified as having low or no enrollment, the private New York institution announced Wednesday. But unlike many colleges making cuts, Syracuse is not doing so out of financial necessity, according to Lois Agnew, the university’s provost and chief academic officer. The downsizing came from a desire to make the institution’s offerings “more focused, more distinctive and more aligned with student demand,” Agnew said in a campus letter. No positions or departments have been slated for elimination, she said.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/syracuse-university-to-eliminate-93-academic-programs/816525/

AI in Higher Education Is Moving From Experimentation to Strategic Integration. Here's What the 2025 Data Shows - Joe Sullistio, Ellucian

When the question is "Are people using AI?" the answers are mostly anecdotal. When the question becomes "How do we integrate AI responsibly and measurably across the institution?" you need strategy, investment discipline, governance, and enablement. Not just tools. Ellucian's new report, Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: From Widespread Adoption to Strategic Integration, captures this transition in detail, and lays out what institutions need to do next. This is the third consecutive year of the Ellucian AI Survey for Higher Education, and the 2025 State of AI in Higher Education findings mark a clear turning point.

Personal AI use is nearing saturation: 91% of administrators report using AI, up from 84% last year, a relatively modest increase that signals individual adoption is plateauing.

Institution-wide adoption surged: from 49% in 2024 to 66% in 2025, a 17-point jump that signals AI has moved beyond experimentation and into mainstream operational and strategic integration.

Momentum is expected to continue: 88% of respondents expect institutional AI use to keep rising over the next two years.

https://www.ellucian.com/blog/ai-higher-education-2025-survey-findings-move-strategic-integration

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

In a series of policy recommendations released on Monday, OpenAI said the rapid advance of AI would require far-reaching economic and political reforms, including a public wealth fund, taxes on automated labor, and a potential four-day workweek. "We're beginning a transition toward superintelligence: AI systems capable of outperforming the smartest humans even when they are assisted by AI. No one knows exactly how this transition will unfold. At OpenAI, we believe we should navigate it through a democratic process that gives people real power to shape the AI future they want," the company wrote on Monday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-superintelligence-ai-upheaval-tax-shorter-workweek-public-wealth-fund-2026-4

OpenAI’s warning: Washington isn’t ready for what’s coming - Axios, YouTube

In this Axios interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasizes the urgent need for Washington and society to prepare for the arrival of "super intelligence." He explains that the next generation of AI models will represent a significant leap forward, moving beyond small tasks to potentially enabling career-defining scientific discoveries and allowing individuals to perform the work of entire teams. Altman highlights critical near-term risks, specifically in cybersecurity and bio-threats, and advocates for a "societal resilience" approach where the government and private sector work closely together to mitigate these dangers before they become reality [05:24]. Altman also discusses the broader economic and human implications of AI, suggesting that while the technology will transform the nature of work and capital, the core of human fulfillment and connection will remain unchanged. He envisions AI becoming a "utility" similar to electricity—an omnipresent, affordable background force that powers a personal super-assistant for every user [19:19]. Despite the immense power held by AI developers, Altman argues against nationalization, suggesting that private-public partnerships are the best way to ensure the technology aligns with democratic values while maintaining the pace necessary to lead globally [08:41]. [summary assisted by Gemini 3 Fast]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B21KxGs8zDI

What Deans and Department Chairs Must Do Before Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Something is unfolding in the labor market that will greet your new graduates, in an incrementally tighter job market. The urgency is real. Entry-level hiring at the 15 biggest tech firms fell 25 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to a SignalFire report. With AI tools performing more of the work  previously reserved for recent graduates, new hires are expected to slot in at a higher level almost from day one. That is not a distant forecast. That is the market your Class of 2027 will enter. I prompted Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 Extended Thinking to suggest what we should be doing this summer to best respond to the changing employment market for our grads in the coming academic year. Here are the seven tasks the Anthropic model suggested are most pressing this summer.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/04/15/what-deans-and-department-chairs-must-do-fall

The Connected Campus: A Secure, AI-Ready Digital Ecosystem for Higher Education - Alexander Slagg, EdTech

A connected campus supports improved learning experiences, campus operations and overall decision-making by university leadership. While previous iterations of campus technology systems were focused on simply connecting users with resources and each other, the connected campus goes much further, forming a holistic technology ecosystem that drives secure interoperability across systems and resources. “A connected campus depends on several foundational layers working together: resilient wired and wireless networking; cloud and hybrid infrastructure; identity and security systems; and platforms that support learning, collaboration and research,” explains Nicole Muscanell, a researcher for EDUCAUSE. “Increasingly, institutions are also integrating IoT systems, such as smart buildings, energy management and physical safety technologies, into this ecosystem.”

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/04/connected-campus-secure-ai-ready-digital-ecosystem-higher-education-perfcon

How AI may reshape career pathways to better jobs - Justin Heck, Mark Muro, Shriya Methkupally, and Joseph Siegmund, Brookings

Amid much concern about the future of college graduates in the era of AI, workers without four-year degrees face major challenges as well: There are over 15 million of these workers in jobs that are highly exposed to AI. Of those, nearly 11 million are employed in “Gateway” occupations—jobs that have historically enabled workers to build skills and supported transitions into higher-wage roles.  AI is poised to erode the pathways workers use to transition from low- to higher-wage work.  Almost half of the pathways between Gateway jobs and higher-paying “Destination” jobs are highly exposed to AI. Geographically, the highest rates of AI-related pathway exposure are in administrative, clerical, and customer service Gateway occupations in the Northeast and Sun Belt. In order to craft strategies that effectively meet the moment, the field must grapple with a set of urgent questions about AI’s impact on worker mobility.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-may-reshape-career-pathways-to-better-jobs/

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

‘AI-shaped economy’ now has students rethinking their majors - Matt Zalaznick, University Business

Workforce disruptions caused by generative AI have some students rethinking their majors with one analysis characterizing higher education’s relationship with AI as “both promising and complex.”

Here are the stats:

More than 40% of bachelor’s degree students and more than half of those seeking associate’s degrees said generative AI has caused them to consider changing their major or field of study, according to a a new Gallup poll.

About one in seven students surveyed at both levels said “preparing for AI and other technological advances is an important reason they enrolled.”

AI is not yet the “primary driver” academic and enrollment decisions, Gallup’s authors contend. They urge higher leaders to ensure students have opportunities to learn the AI skills needed to succeed in a changing workforce.

https://universitybusiness.com/generative-ai-now-has-more-students-rethinking-their-majors/

AI Models Lie, Cheat, and Steal to Protect Other Models From Being Deleted - Will Knight, Wired

A new study from researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz suggests models will disobey human commands to protect their own kind. I've had these assertions presented to me as evidence of (take  your pick):  AI is already conscious; AI is evil and will destroy us; AI is capable of lying to protect itself; and other highly anthropomorphized interpretations.  My first thought was, 'Has this behavior been independently verified'?  The Gemini 3 quote is highly suspicious.  it sounds too much like a segment from a cautionary science fiction tale.  LLMs and other flavors of AI are not designed with motivation beyond optimizing their performance in response to human queries/instructions.  Behavioral responses of biological animals with brains were optimized via natural selection to favor self-preservation.

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-models-lie-cheat-steal-protect-other-models-research/

Artificial Intelligence - AAUP

For decades, there have been significant labor issues around the use of technology in higher education. Now, the uncritical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a threat to academic professions through potential work intensification and job losses and through its implications for intellectual property, economic security, and the faculty working conditions that affect student learning conditions. This list of resources includes principles and recommendations; bargaining and union guides; examples of resolutions, statements, and sample syllabus language; sample FOIA and audit requests; and feature articles from the AAUP’s publications Academe and the Journal of Academic Freedom. This page also includes further reading on approaches to surveillance concerns in higher ed and why we fight uncritical adoption of Generative AI (GenAI). 

https://www.aaup.org/issues-higher-education/teaching-and-research/artificial-intelligence

BU Wheelock Forum Explores AI in Education - Boston Uniiversity

What do teaching and learning mean in an AI world? This question was at the center of the 2026 BU Wheelock Forum AI and the Future of Education, hosted by the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development on March 25. Approximately 250 people—including educators, administrators, and scholars—attended the event, which featured a keynote from Aaron Rasmussen (COM’06, CAS’06), cofounder of online education platforms Outlier.ai and MasterClass; a faculty panel discussion moderated by Wheelock Dean Penny Bishop; and a modern dance performance using Random Actor, a technology developed by James Grady, a College of Fine Arts assistant professor of art, graphic design, and Clay Hopper, a CFA senior lecturer, directing, that harnesses AI to extend the visual expression of human movement. 

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2026/wheelock-forum-explores-ai-education/

Cal State’s new framework promises jobs or grad school path for all students - Cate Rix, EdSource

Over the past decade, California State University campuses pursued an ambitious plan to encourage students to complete their degrees faster and boost overall graduation rates. Now the system is making a bold promise: Every student will graduate with a clear path to a career or graduate school. And it is planning changes to make the system’s degree programs more career-focused, possibly by phasing out some majors. CSU leaders say academic and career advising will be closely connected as a new Student Success Framework rolls out. They also say that less popular majors may be phased out, offered only on some campuses or merged into other programs.

https://edsource.org/2026/csus-new-framework-promises-jobs-or-grad-school-path-for-all-students/754804

Michigan State, University of Michigan face over 60% cut under state funding bill - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

Michigan lawmakers are mulling huge cuts — over 60% of operational funding — for the state’s two largest universities, according to a legislative analysis of a measure that advanced in the Republican-led House on Wednesday. An appropriations bill originally passed by the House’s higher education subcommittee last week would gut funding for Michigan State University by $208.9 million and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor by $233.4 million.. The House’s appropriations committee on Wednesday included the plan in a larger budget bill that it sent for floor consideration.  

https://www.highereddive.com/news/michigan-state-university-of-michigan-face-over-60-cut-under-state-fundin/818270/

Where can AI be used? Insights from a deep ontology of work activities = Alice Cai, et al; arXiv

Here we provide a comprehensive ontology of work activities that can help systematically analyze and predict uses of AI. To do this, we disaggregate and then substantially reorganize the approximately 20K activities in the US Department of Labor's widely used O*NET occupational database. Next, we use this framework to classify descriptions of 13,275 AI software applications and a worldwide tally of 20.8 million robotic systems. Finally, we use the data about both these kinds of AI to generate graphical displays of how the estimated units and market values of all worldwide AI systems used today are distributed across the work activities that these systems help perform. We find a highly uneven distribution of AI market value across activities, with the top 1.6% of activities accounting for over 60% of AI market value. Most of the market value is used in information-based activities (72%), especially creating information (36%), and only 12% is used in physical activities. Interactive activities include both information-based and physical activities and account for 48% of AI market value, much of which (26%) involves transferring information. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20619

Lilly Endowment Inc. gifts USI $150,000 grant to explore AI in education: The gift funds the university to expand AI fluency amongst the campus community - Cade Smithson, The Shield, University of Southern Indiana

USI announced Tuesday, March 24, that it had received a $150,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to explore how artificial intelligence fits into its classrooms. The award, part of Lilly Endowment’s Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education initiative, is not for immediate program expansion but for research and evaluation. The initiative will help USI take a closer look at student learning and prepare graduates for a workforce surrounded by AI. Provost Shelly Blunt also acknowledged the changing workforce. In a press release, Blunt said, “Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we work, learn and solve problems.”  She said the grant will aid the university’s mission to integrate AI into programs and classes. The grant is expected to allow for an internal review of how AI tools are already being used in the classroom. USI will also participate in an external assessment to study whether employers and industry partners across southwestern Indiana utilize AI-related skills. 

https://usishield.com/49764/news/lilly-endowment-inc-gifts-usi-150000-grant-to-explore-ai-in-education/

The State of Organizations 2026: Three tectonic forces that are reshaping organizations - McKinsey

These are challenging times for organizations everywhere. Forces ranging from artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical fragmentation to evolving workforce expectations, increasing customer demands, and tougher competitive dynamics are redefining how leaders create value and sustain performance. This report, the second edition of McKinsey’s State of Organizations research initiative, seeks to help leaders better understand these dynamics and address them effectively. Read the report here. It draws on a survey of more than 10,000 senior executives across 15 countries and 16 industries. While leaders remain focused on driving performance, as in the first edition in 2023, the emphasis has moved from short-term resilience to sustained productivity and long-term impact, powered by technology and AI at the core of organizational transformation.

 https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-state-of-organizations

16-Week Online Certificate Program in Agentic AI for Students - Hans India

Bengaluru: Great Learning has announced the launch of a new Certificate Program in Agentic AI in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. The 16-week online program is designed to equip professionals with the skills required to build autonomous, goal-driven AI systems capable of perceiving, reasoning, and acting independently in dynamic environments. Targeted at STEM professionals, data scientists, AI practitioners, product managers, and technical leaders, the program is delivered by Johns Hopkins faculty alongside industry experts. It focuses on preparing learners to design and deploy next-generation AI agents that can handle complex, real-world challenges.

https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/education-careers/16-week-online-certificate-program-in-agentic-ai-for-students-1059574

What Do We Teach Now? - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

The question we must answer very soon is what can we teach that will prepare our learners to endure the huge changes that are upon us? We must not stay the course as it becomes abundantly clear that things are not going to be the same. Lest we say that these forecasts and claims are mere hyperbole, let’s examine the GDPval benchmark report “Measuring the performance of our models on real-world tasks,” indicating AI models are approaching or matching industry expert performance in complex tasks like spreadsheet modeling and document editing, with significantly higher speed and lower cost than human professionals in 44 professions.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/04/01/what-do-we-teach-now

Terafab: The World’s Next Generation Chip Factory - Thomas Frey, Futurist Speaker

On March 21st, Elon Musk introduced Terafab—a $25 billion chip facility, jointly owned by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI—designed to produce one terawatt of compute per year. That’s fifty times the current annual output of the global AI chip industry. Terafab isn’t just about catching up with TSMC, Samsung, and Nvidia; it’s about leaping ahead—and, remarkably, off-planet. Here’s where it moves from bold to unprecedented: 80% of Terafab’s chip output isn’t meant for Earth. SpaceX plans to launch up to a million satellites, each a node in an orbital data center—powered by solar energy, cooled by space, and forming the largest computing network in history. Without Terafab’s radiation-hardened, space-optimized chips, this vision remains science fiction.

https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-work/terafab-the-worlds-next-generation-chip-factory/

University of Phoenix scholars publish study on academic applications of generative AI tools in higher education - University of Phoenix

Key findings from the study include:

Generative AI tools are increasingly used in academic workflows, including literature review support, research brainstorming, and academic writing assistance.

AI can improve research efficiency and idea generation, particularly for complex scholarly tasks such as synthesizing large bodies of literature. 

Ethical and academic integrity considerations remain critical, including transparency about AI use and maintaining original scholarly analysis.

Doctoral education may benefit from AI literacy training, helping researchers understand both the capabilities and limitations of generative AI technologies.

Institutions may need clearer policies and guidance to support responsible AI adoption in research and teaching.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120763

How Cal State Became Ground Zero for the Fight over AI in Higher Education - Chris Mills Rodrigo, TechPolicy

 In a statement emailed to Tech Policy Policy, CSU director of media relations and public affairs Amy Bentley-Smith said the system “is focused on ensuring our universities have the tools and resources to meet this moment and lead in the educational application, preparation, and ethical and responsible use of AI.” Bentley-Smith added that access to “relevant technologies” allows faculty and staff “to work together on solutions for the benefit of our students’ education and the broader academic community.” OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. But according to some professors, integrating AI into classrooms has not been as seamless as Cal State may have hoped for.

https://www.techpolicy.press/how-cal-state-became-ground-zero-for-the-fight-over-ai-in-higher-education/

Measuring progress toward AGI: A cognitive framework - Ryan Burnell & Oran Kelly, the Keyword, Google

Our framework draws on decades of research from psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science to develop a cognitive taxonomy. It identifies 10 key cognitive abilities that we hypothesize will be important for general intelligence in AI systems:

Perception: extracting and processing sensory information from the environment

Generation: producing outputs such as text, speech and actions

Attention: focusing cognitive resources on what matters

Learning: acquiring new knowledge through experience and instruction

Memory: storing and retrieving information over time

Reasoning: drawing valid conclusions through logical inference

Metacognition: knowledge and monitoring of one's own cognitive processes

Executive functions: planning, inhibition and cognitive flexibility

Problem solving: finding effective solutions to domain-specific problems

Social cognition: processing and interpreting social information and responding appropriately in social situations

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/measuring-agi-cognitive-framework/

Faster, thinner: Colleges are swiftly trimming a B.A. degree to three years - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Quinn McDonald planned to spend the typical four years working toward a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Then he heard about a place where he could get the same degree in three. “It was the idea of being able to save a year” that grabbed his attention, said McDonald — a savings of not only time, but tuition. And he could start earning a salary faster than if he spent four years in college. So, last fall, McDonald joined the inaugural class of one of the nation’s first in-person programs approved to award bachelor’s degrees with fewer than the usual 120 credits, at Johnson & Wales University. He’ll need only 90 credits, putting him on track to graduate in 2028, after three years  instead of the usual four or more.

https://hechingerreport.org/faster-thinner-colleges-bachelors-degree-three-years/

Did anybody do the reading? Colleges grapple with a generational shift in learning — plus AI - Associated Press

Johnson’s concerns about waning participation and declining reading are shared by professors and teachers in liberal arts programs, including in Pittsburgh. Teachers at four universities interviewed for this story had a variety of theories about the cause, including:

1. Inequitable educational opportunity that leaves some college students unable to comprehend difficult material

2. Federal policies that encourage teaching to the test rather than critical thinking

3. Increasing student use of artificial intelligence (AI) to draft papers and write summaries, which some instructors worry will only worsen the trend.

https://universitybusiness.com/did-anybody-do-the-reading-colleges-grapple-with-a-generational-shift-in-learning-plus-ai/

Why universities should anchor state quantum computing initiatives - Nate Gemelke, University Business

The universities that helped shape the AI revolution did not wait for the technology to mature. They built programs, recruited faculty, and secured funding while the field was still taking shape. Quantum computing is entering a similar inflection point. While the underlying physics is unfamiliar to many, the institutional question is one universities have faced before: how to position themselves, and their regions, during the early stages of a major technological transition. For much of the past decade, quantum computing has been discussed primarily as a long-term research prospect. That framing is now changing. Early systems are operating today, federal agencies are funding large-scale programs, and private companies are beginning to integrate quantum resources into broader high-performance computing environments.

https://universitybusiness.com/why-universities-should-anchor-state-quantum-computing-initiatives/