A look at trends in college consolidation since 2016 - Higher Ed Dive Team

We’re tracking major closings, mergers, acquisitions and other consolidation among public and private nonprofit institutions from 2016 to the present. The last few years have been tumultuous for many U.S. colleges. Pressure to lower tuition, stagnating state funding and a shrinking pool of high school graduates has strained many institutions’ bottom lines and questioned their long-term viability. Those pressures have caused some to close. We’ve been tracking consolidation across higher education since the fall of 2018, looking back as far as 2016. Our goal was not to create a death watch but rather to give our readers a tool to show the scope of that activity and any patterns within it. To make those trends easier to detect, we updated our tracker with a map showing closings and significant consolidations by state. In doing that, we also revised our list to omit certain consolidation activity among public institutions in which their footprints remained largely the same. Prior to this update, we removed for-profit colleges from our list; this was due to their differences in scale from private nonprofit and public institutions as well as the sometimes fragmented nature of their closings.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/

What Canvas learned from a massive cyberattack - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Artificial intelligence has made it easier for cyberattackers to breach college and university systems and steal valuable student and staff data. Canvas, higher education’s most high-profile victim this year, is remodeling its security to prepare for the inevitable next attempt. What experts have learned is that colleges may be sorely underprepared for the next evolution in cybersecurity. “A lot of the conversation around cybersecurity in the next six months is going to be about speed,” says Zach Pendleton, chief architect at Instructure. “Everything that made a good security program a year ago still matters, but the speed at which we’re implementing them doesn’t match the moment.” Instructure, the edtech company behind learning management system Canvas, suffered one of the largest data breaches in the U.S. this year after cybercriminals gained access through a third-party vendor—an increasingly common occurrence in higher ed.

https://universitybusiness.com/what-canvas-learned-from-a-massive-cyberattack/

Focus on the Quantum Future - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

While artificial general intelligence and artificial super intelligence will mark significant improvements in AI algorithms, there is not a single clear definition of either of these terms. Therefore, some experts believe that we have already achieved AGI and that ASI is just a year or two away; others say it will be the middle of the century before either is achieved. So, without minimizing the impact of any of the steps toward general and super intelligence, I think we are better served by focusing on more solidly defined steps in AI advancement. That brings us to what may become a pivotal stage of development in AI, the use of stable quantum computing to accelerate and extend the potential of algorithms. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/08/19/focus-quantum-future

Loss of International Students Could Cost Economy $3.4B - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

The United States may have as many as 112,000 fewer international students enrolled in higher education this coming academic year, according to new projections that NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International published Tuesday. Based on data from the Institute of International Education, the analysis estimates that about 1,057,000 international students will be enrolled at a college or university during the 2026–27 academic year, compared to an estimated 1,169,000 during the 2025–26 academic year. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/08/12/loss-international-students-could-cost-economy-34b

Building expertise in the age of AI: Who trains the next generation? - Bryan Hancock, McKinsey

Building expertise in the age of AI: Who trains the next generation? - Bryan Hancock, McKinsey

For decades, organizations have relied on early-career talent to do the routine, lower-risk work that supports the business and to serve as a training ground for future leaders. Think of Peggy Olson’s trajectory on Mad Men, from novice assistant to Don Draper’s protégé to confident copy chief at an advertising agency—a climb that began because routine work kept her in the room where judgment was practiced, and where her own could be noticed. In real life, advances in automation and AI are changing the composition of entry-level work itself. Tasks such as research, documentation, data cleanup, basic coding, and preliminary analysis are being streamlined or absorbed into AI systems. These are precisely the activities through which young employees have traditionally built instincts, developed judgment, and earned the right to take on more. At the same time, fears are growing about the impact of AI on jobs. In the 2025 Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, entry-level workers, particularly women, reported feeling the most worried of all age groups about how AI use will affect their jobs. 

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/building-expertise-in-the-age-of-ai-who-trains-the-next-generation

Improving GPT‑5.6 Sol in ChatGPT—and expanding access to GPT‑5.6 Luna for free users - OpenAI

Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. We’re introducing updates to ChatGPT that improve everyday conversations while expanding access for Free users. For Plus and Pro users, we’re updating GPT‑5.6 Sol in Chat to be more reliable with facts and provide more focused answers. A new slider lets you choose how much thought ChatGPT puts into each response. For Free users, we're updating the default model to GPT‑5.6 Luna and expanding access with unlimited text chats. For questions that need more thought, a new Think button lets you access higher reasoning for harder questions.

https://openai.com/index/improving-gpt-5-6-sol-in-chatgpt/

AI won’t kill the college degree, but it will change what it’s for - Colin Gabler, Atlanta Journal Constitution

In the AI era, the value of college will not be measured by the output students generate, but whether they can form and defend the judgments they make behind it. That shift to artificial intelligence is already changing what counts as evidence of real learning in higher education, how we justify the valuable time and resources students, parents, local communities and potential employers invest in the next generation of citizens. I saw this firsthand in my MBA classroom, where students recently presented market-entry strategies to a live client. Article author, Colin Gabler says  In this op-ed at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I argue that college is worth its cost in the age of AI only if it develops graduates who can interpret, challenge, and take responsibility for machine-shaped decisions rather than merely execute them.

https://www.ajc.com/opinion/2026/08/ai-wont-kill-the-college-degree-but-it-will-change-what-its-for/

OpenAI wants teachers and profs to foist their work off on ChatGPT - The Register

The House of Altman announced a trio of new education-focused offerings on Tuesday: one for K-12 teachers, another for college educators, and a third for college students. The new plugins, the company explained, will help students and educators make more use of ChatGPT’s agentic capabilities for both studying and teaching. The new features are available through ChatGPT Edu, an institutionally licensed suite for higher education, and ChatGPT for Teachers, a free resource available to verified US K–12 educators and school districts. The new offerings, says OpenAI, build on its educational AI philosophy that “AI should support learning, not shortcut it, and the best learning experiences keep educators and students in control.”

https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/04/openai-wants-teachers-and-profs-to-foist-their-work-off-on-chatgpt/5283064

Fitch: New visa limits could hurt international enrollment and revenue - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

The Trump administration’s new rule capping international student visa stays at four years could hurt revenue and decrease enrollment at colleges, particularly those that heavily rely on foreign students, according to a Tuesday analysis from Fitch Ratings. Financial pressure will be greatest on institutions with weaker student demand, limited financial flexibility, and a high reliance on tuition and fee revenue, Fitch analysts said. Colleges with significant STEM and graduate offerings could also be particularly hit hard, as it often takes more than four years to complete such programs. These institutions may face higher expenses “to address overseas recruitment challenges,” the analysts wrote. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/fitch-new-visa-limits-could-hurt-international-enrollment-and-revenue/827158/

Differential engagement with generative artificial intelligence in higher education: Gender, motivation, and achievement trajectories - uan-Hsuan Lee & Jiun-Yu Wu, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education

Engagement frequency was shaped by learner differences: female students, those with stronger autonomous motivation, lower prior knowledge, and higher course performance interacted more frequently, while higher-performing students were less likely to abstain from use. Importantly, engagement was not merely a matter of frequency but of inquiry quality and diversity. Growing Achievers (students who began with weaker achievement but demonstrated substantial performance gains) posed more diverse and conceptually oriented questions. In contrast, Declining Performers engaged minimally and focused on narrower, procedural inquiries despite stronger initial knowledge.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-026-00615-8

Public health courses provide opportunities for international collaboration and learning - Mellissa Withers, Keck School of Medicine, USC

Both of these courses are delivered online to facilitate international collaboration and participation across partner institutions, and are open to USC students in any modality or concentration. Students from outside of the MPH program are also welcome to enroll.

https://keck.usc.edu/news/public-health-courses-provide-opportunities-for-international-collaboration-and-learning/

Students as Conscientious Objectors to Generative AI: We should listen to them—and treat their objections with respect - Carla Fehr and Jennifer Saul, Inside Higher Ed

 When Carla explained the assignment, the first question raised was “What if we don’t want to use GenAI?” At first, she responded that it was part of the assignment and that whether or not they wanted to use generative AI, they should at least know how to use it. If they then chose to reject it, they could do so from a place of knowledge and experience. The class atmosphere became tense as more students pushed back against this required use of generative AI. They wanted to know what their classmates thought rather than what a large language model produced in response to prompting; they wanted to wrestle with difficult readings and complex ideas; they wanted to work together across their human differences to negotiate new ideas and find ways of expressing them. And they didn’t want to outsource any of this effort to generative AI. They wanted to do the work, even the mundane work.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/teaching/2026/07/30/students-conscientious-objectors-gen-ai-opinion

From Knowledge Building to Wisdom Building in Higher Education - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

In years gone by, we said that students went to college to gather knowledge. Now, college is appropriately expected to be much more about building wisdom. The advent of the internet toward the end of the last century went a long way to stimulate this shift to the emphasis on wisdom. More recently, artificial intelligence has further accelerated the move. Those of us in higher education who still have our focus on knowledge gathering in our classes are a quarter of a century behind the times. Rote memorization of facts is out of date, supplanted by highly refined search and retrieval skills coupled with an ability to apply sophisticated critical and creative thinking to those data. We are at the turning point in higher learning where we must now shift our focus from memorization and recitation of facts to the synthesis and analysis of a much broader virtual “library” of knowledge. From this perspective, we will build wisdom among our students. This new level of learning will provide the platform for graduates and certificate completers to exercise leadership and vision in our society.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/08/05/knowledge-building-wisdom-building-higher-ed

A ‘buffet’ model of faculty development to support evolving use of AI - Ben Kei Daniel, Times Higher Education

A flexible, agile approach to AI skills development allows faculty and students to choose the guidance, resources and learning opportunities that best fit their roles and contexts. A “buffet” approach recognises this and gives staff and students multiple pathways for responsible and meaningful engagement. Instead of relying on rigid, one-size-fits-all policies, the model provides flexible, context-based support that encourages responsible and effective AI use. It provides faculty and students with a high degree of choice in guidance, resources and learning with AI tools, allowing them to select the opportunities that best match their role, discipline, confidence and experience. Our experience shows that faculty and students gain confidence and competence in using AI over time through repeated engagement, practical work and dialogue with colleagues. 

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/buffet-model-faculty-development-support-evolving-use-ai

90% of students use AI in the classroom, Instructure poll finds - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive

A large majority of college students — 90% — report using artificial intelligence in class at least occasionally, according to new survey data from ed tech provider Instructure. Nearly two-thirds of college instructors, 61%, said the same. But the survey, released Tuesday, also found that only 11% of higher ed instructors received comprehensive AI training, while 41% said they had not received any formal training on AI. Educators are looking for support in the form of hands-on training, clear guidance from their institutions about AI use, and ongoing professional development on the topic, according to Instructure.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/90-of-students-use-ai-in-the-classroom-instructure-poll-finds/825714/