📊 68% of students see AI as a positive force. 🗽 Join us in NYC — Back to School turns 25.

Hello 👋

QS's new data shows 68% of students and 74% of academics believe Generative AI plays a positive role in society, with the strongest optimism reported in Asia Pacific. That same unevenness in how AI gets taken up is showing up at the system level too: Armenia is handing every university free ChatGPT Edu and Codex access, the UAE has branded a national AI education push as Project NOVA, and Germany's University of Digital Science just partnered with Uzbekistan's National University to extend AI education across Central Asia. Underneath the regional spread, students and academics are more aligned than not, both want clearer guidance on acceptable use and training in how to use AI professionally and ethically, rather than restriction.

The Generative AI in Higher Education report breaks down that regional and stakeholder picture in more depth, including where the gaps are widest.

📍 Upcoming Education Innovation Events

🗽 Back to School turns 25 and the agenda keeps expanding

The 25th Annual Back to School Summit hits New York City September 15–17, bringing together policymakers, investors, and education leaders across three tracks: Postsecondary Education & Workforce Futures, Technology & Finance, and Impact & Outcomes.

On the program:

• QS CEO Jessica Turner opens with a look at the decade ahead, followed by first-look data from the QS World Future Skills Index
• Jeff Selingo on what value means in higher ed now
• BMO's Jeff Silber returns with his annual capital markets read
• A global panel — on the policy discussion over screen time in schools with Erin Mote (InnovateEdu) and other global voices.
• A closer look at AI and how far universities have really moved from experimentation to practice
• Conversation on innovation, human capital, and the future of learning by leaders such as Philip Moyer of McGraw Hill;
• Education and Workforce Policy Briefings
• and more... agenda update coming soon.

Register today and save 20% with code BTSADS20

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⭐ AI & Digital Innovation Spotlight

🖥️ Google unveiled a suite of new teacher-led AI-powered education tools, to create personalized study guides, adaptive quiz prep, and curriculum-informed learning experiences. 

🤝 Armenia's Ministry of Education partnered with OpenAI and Firebird to distribute around 50,000 free ChatGPT Edu subscriptions to the country's educational, engineering, and research communities.

📊 California launched the nation's first public AI-Unemployment Tracker, a early warning dashboard that links unemployment insurance claims to occupational AI-exposure data.

🤝 Policy & Partnerships

🗺️ Canada launched its AI for All national strategy, a five-year plan targeting $200B economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs, a National AI Literacy initiative, and investment in sovereign computing.

🏫 China's State Council released a five-year blueprint mandating AI education to make AI a core competency for every student and strengthen the country's pipeline of high-tech talent.

⚙️ The UAE Ministry of Education launched Project Nova, an AI initiative designed to reduce administrative workloads for teachers, deliver personalised learning, and improve the efficiency of decision-making across the education system.

💪 Power Moves & Funding

Deal activity this week split between scale consolidation in assessment and international K-12, and smaller capability acquisitions.

🏫 KKR acquired a majority stake in XCL, a Southeast Asian school operator, in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.

📚 Uplimit was acquired by Handshake to enhance its online learning capabilities for its early-career platform.

🧪 ETS acquired ACT, bringing two of the largest US assessment and testing organizations under common ownership.

🔗 Plan Forward, an edtech startup, was acquired by LinkIt, consolidating its tools into one data and assessment platform.