🛡️Campus AI agents are prompting procurement questions

Hello 👋

Software that acts on a student's behalf is starting to deploy inside campus systems. Pathify added an agent to its Campus Experience Platform that takes action across campus systems, TechnologyOne launched one for student administration, and Nvidia released an open platform that sandboxes agents and limits their access to files, networks and credentials. Those are the same boundaries campus IT teams already manage around student records and finance systems, which gives them a ready yardstick for any vendor agent. Expect sandboxing and permission controls to appear in higher education procurement questionnaires.

📊 Take a look at how academics rank the barriers to AI implementation, where ethical concerns (49%) and data security and privacy (31%) lead the list, a useful backdrop for the questions buyers are about to ask vendors.

Top challenges for AI implementation
Share of respondents citing each challenge, %, QS AI Academic Pulse Survey, 2025

Get caught up with the QS Innovation Series to keep exploring how universities are putting AI to work, including the November 25 session, innovating with integrity: sustainability, AI & the responsible institution.

Watch them on demand and live 🎓

🪄 Reimagine Education is set for early december and early bird tickets are available now.

Reimagine Education 6-8 December, InterContinental London - The O2 London, United Kingdom

Higher education's biggest questions land in London this December. QS Reimagine Education Awards & Conference brings university leaders, employers, and edtech innovators together across four tracks: Future University, Future of Skills & Work, Future of Learning, and Future of International Education. Expect debate on funding models, graduate outcomes, AI in the classroom, and student mobility.

📍 Upcoming Education Innovation Events

⭐ AI & Digital Innovation Spotlight

🏫 Ohio State and Google launched a strategic AI partnership that includes an on-campus AI space in the university's Innovation District  to access Google DeepMind tools, while students gain a 24/7 AI-powered virtual assistant.

🎓 INSEAD partnered with OpenAI to roll out ChatGPT Edu to students, faculty and staff across its campuses to cover AI-powered case studies, personalized learning, research support, and agentic workflows. 

🌍 Ghana TVET Service partnered with UNESCO, KPMG and Microsoft to train at least 100,000 TVET facilitators in AI and digital skills under the AI EmpowerED initiative.

🤝 Policy & Partnerships

🌏 Australia tightened temporary visa rules as part of its drive to reduce net overseas migration. Most student and temporary graduate visa applicants can no longer include family members, with exemptions for ASEAN and Pacific applicants and PhD students.

🇲🇾 Malaysia's Higher Education Blueprint 2026-2035 sets out a 10-year strategy to modernize the higher education system, build a future-ready workforce, and position the country as a leading regional education hub. 

💻 Canvas's partnership with OpenAI continues to expand, with Instructure positioning Ignite AI as an embedded tutor and teaching assistant inside the learning management system.

💪 Power Moves & Funding

AI skills and campus growth drew the capital this week, with Pearson and FI Group buying skills businesses while Carnegie Mellon and Arivihan secured funding to expand.

📢 Pearson, global learning company, agreed to acquire Workera to expand its AI skills verification capabilities.

🎁 Carnegie Mellon University received a $3B gift, the largest individual donation to a higher education institution, to expand operations including a new Miami campus.

📚 Arivihan raised $10M to expand its AI-powered video learning platform into regions across India and add vernacular-language features.

🤖 FI Group Holdings, parent of First Intuition, acquired Decoded to extend its training into AI and data skills.