How should higher education rethink opportunity when the rules are changing?

Welcome! Connecting universities and industry has been something of a dream goal the past few decades. Both clearly want these types of partnerships, but for myriad reasons have been difficult to create. So, this week, we explore several success stories of university/industry partnership to see why they’ve worked and what your institution can learn.

Meanwhile, in the US, a 2023 Supreme Court decision to disallow considering race in admissions could have implications for a number of scholarships around the country. Find out what this could mean.

Stay insightful,
Anton John Crace
Editor in Chief, QS Insights Magazine
QS Quacquarelli Symonds

Why university-industry partnerships matter more than ever

By Prisha Dandwani

In brief

• Universities and industry are collaborating more closely to translate academic research into real-world impact and future-proof graduate careers.
• Innovation hubs and joint research provide students with practical experience while "de-risking" the hiring process for global employers.
• Long-term alignment and trust enable universities to develop the interdisciplinary skills graduates need for a rapidly changing economy.

When scientists at the University of Oxford developed one of the world’s first approved COVID-19 vaccines, they realised the hardest work was still ahead of them.

Developing a vaccine in a laboratory was one thing; producing millions of doses for worldwide distribution was another.

To achieve this, they formed a partnership with AstraZeneca. Years of academic research culminated in a big step forward in public health. The well-known collaboration between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford reflects the importance of universities and industry coming together to translate research into real-world impact.

Why universities and industry need to be on the same page

As those working in higher education know all too well, environmental and health concerns, geopolitical shifts and technological advances are shifting the nature of employment opportunities.

As industries evolve and technologies develop at unprecedented speed, employers are looking for graduates who possess knowledge that can be applied in real settings.

According to a whitepaper released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), almost a quarter of jobs around the world are expected to change by 2027, with approximately 69 million new job roles created and 83 million jobs displaced. WEF estimates that some of the fastest-growing jobs will be in the fields of AI, sustainability, business intelligence, information security and agriculture.

Higher education plays a key role in enhancing the availability of human capital for innovation. An OECD report highlights the relationship between educational attainment and innovation capacity. University graduates are more likely than those without a degree to innovate, to invent and to adapt in changing labour markets that undergo technological flux. Private-sector participation and investment also inform the capacity of educational programmes to prepare for real-world settings.

Likewise, QS’ 2027 World Future Skills Index found that in the face of disruption, the most competitive economies will be those that can align higher education, industry and public policy. The report also made special note of the potential for smaller economies to have proportionately larger growth if that alignment is done around specialised strengths.

Actions speak louder than words

In November 2025, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY) announced a partnership with the University of Central Florida (UCF). Situated on UCF's Lake Mary campus, the educational innovation hub is the first of its kind and spans more than 300,000 square feet.

Michael Harding, UCF’s Associate Vice President for Partnerships, shares his experience of implementing this partnership with BNY (coincidentally, where Harding began his career) with QS Insights.

“UCF has approximately 70,000 students, and around 30 percent of them are first-generation. And we wanted democratisation of access and to help remove financial barriers that prevent people from getting hands-on experience,” Harding says.

In terms of how the partnership began, he explains that BNY approached UCF and expressed keen interest in tapping into growth markets in Pittsburgh and Orlando in the United States. They also wanted to hone in on AI in banking. The idea was that it would also give students on UCF’s campus practical experience with a BNY-developed course.

“The client has a beautiful office that’s 45 minutes away, but to a student who is without a car and first-gen, it might as well be Guam,” jokes Harding.

Rolling up their sleeves

Harding says his role in the venture was to “blur the line between industry and academia to meet the new economy”.

And so, he set his sights on converting a standard academic building into a corporate innovation outpost to break barriers.

Bringing this all together was no easy feat, and Harding points out the variety of tasks involved in getting the project off the ground. Those included everything from converting a building into a corporate co-location hub, IT infrastructure, property-leasing agreements, systems integration - which even included parking services having to enable third-party access cards - and producing experiential learning. This sort of foundational work was essential to ensuring students had access to the BNY systems and best practices.

The programme, which began in Autumn last year, brought in 27 students and currently boasts a 97 percent conversion rate. Students make $25 per hour while receiving 3 credits on their transcript.

Following the programme’s completion, 25 out of the 27 students were offered summer internships for $38 per hour. These students will be progressed to the second stage of the programme, and after two semesters, most of them will be offered full-time employment at the bank.

“This whole programme helped the client understand the talent earlier. The HR Director said it was the smoothest onboarding process they’ve had, given the nature of ‘de-risking’ the hire by getting to know them earlier.

“The students also had an enriched 10-week summer internship experience without getting caught up in onboarding logistics, like getting laptops and orientation organised,” Harding points out.

As is the case with most worthwhile endeavours, it has not been without hurdles.

“Implementing this partnership was a masterclass in listening to your partner, thinking outside the box and innovation within the university to build a new product,” Harding explains.

In it for the long haul

Imperial College London is another institution where partnerships with industry are given priority and significance.

QS Insights sat down with Joanna Clark, Director of Industry Partnerships at Imperial College, to understand more about how industry engagement works on campus.

“It’s about creating a holistic ecosystem. Industry engagement is embedded throughout student life. We have guest speakers, industry contacts and showcases in our departments,” Clark says.

“A number of our departments have conversations with the advisory boards of organisations we work with. They discuss what the workforce will need.”

She highlights momentous partnerships such as their work with Shell. This is part of a ‘Prosperity Partnership’,  a formal research engagement between UK business and universities co-funded equally by government bodies and private industry.

“The process is competitive. It takes time to build these partnerships,” Clark notes.

She also points out Imperial’s partnership with BASF, a world-renowned chemicals producer and supplier. As a result of this collaboration, 25 PhD students have been trained, 4 patents have been filed and 3 PhD graduates are now working with BASF.

BASF and Imperial are collaborating on Innovative Continuous Manufacturing for industrial chemicals (IConIC). IConIC is a £17.8 million research programme designed to advance flow chemistry, a production technique in which the required reactions take place in continuous operation rather than in batches, which can prevent energy wastage.

Alignment is key

In addition to working on the partnership for the long haul, sharing the same vision is paramount to success.

To Clark, alignment is at the heart of effective partnerships, but it isn’t achieved overnight.

“On campus at Imperial, it’s not just the presence of industry; it’s a constant presence of real-world programmes - very different to ten years ago when there was this vague expectation of the student body to ‘change the world’. That comes from understanding how the world actually needs to be changed and what solutions we can come up with.

“Our departments discuss courses with the advisory boards of some of the industries we work with. It has to be mutually beneficial. In our partnership with Shell, for instance, we were building different activities that then converged into partnership,” Clark tells QS Insights.

Fiona McCusker, the Innovations Partnership Manager at the University of Newcastle, agrees with the need for alignment.

The university has an award-winning partnership with Procter and Gamble (P&G) which focusses on building consumer household products, addressing sustainability and performance, and preparing an incoming cohort of researchers.

The university is looking ahead to expand its collaboration with P&G in a number of areas such as industrial biotechnology, AI-enabled research and development, sustainable consumer products and technologies that would support NetZero ambitions.

Since the partnership began in 2022, 24 students have benefitted, including direct appointments with P&G and postdoctoral students working directly with P&G.

“The biggest challenge has been navigating the complexity that comes with such a broad partnership. We work across multiple business units and project types, from student engagements through to large-scale research collaborations,” says McCusker.

“Maintaining alignment between Newcastle University and Procter and Gamble requires ongoing communication and relationship building, but that’s all been one of our greatest strengths. By investing time in understanding each other’s goals and creating a culture of openness and trust, we’ve developed a partnership that is agile, ambitious and focussed on delivering real-world impact.”

The student experience

When students go to university, it’s still important for them to think about what they enjoy doing.

Despite areas such as AI, tech, engineering and healthcare seeming to dominate the employment landscape, what matters most is the ability to take skills from a course and make them transferable.

Harding recalls a ‘Big-12’ conference that UCF hosted where companies such as Universal Studios, Siemens Energy, BNY, Advent Health and Lockheed Martin were all invited to discuss graduate skills.

“Every single industry professional said while students do need to have the technical and logical skills, there is a need for interdisciplinary skills and curiosity. They said if a graduate can’t put their phone down, engage the other, use critical thinking or pull a solution together, they are dead on arrival,” he says.

Through the work experience that UCF fosters, students are given a ‘catapult’ and how they launch is up to them.

Clark shares this sentiment, acknowledging that it is still important for students to study what they are sincerely interested in, despite research that states where the employment opportunities are.

“It’s not so much about what you study, it’s about the environment you are studying in and the ecosystem of support. I’d say to still study what you enjoy, and the rest should then follow,” she says.

Prisha Dandwani contributes to QS as a communications and research specialist with over 10 years experience working with companies in Hong Kong and London. As a previous contract Deputy Editor at QS, she feels strongly about developments in the higher education sector that indicate how academic priorities and incoming graduates can shape the global landscape in the years to come.

Race-based scholarships becoming more scarce as legal challenges mount

By Jamaal Abdul-Alim

In brief

• US race-based scholarships are disappearing as legal challenges mount following the 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action ruling.
• Legal pressure has already reduced race-based eligibility criteria, sparking debates over equality versus historical redress.
• Universities are exploring race-neutral alternatives, such as geographic or socio-economic markers, to maintain student diversity.

Whenever I serve as a mentor to Black college students here in the US, I often mention how there’s no excuse not to apply for scholarships when they’re so easy to find.

“All you have to do is search for the words ‘scholarship’ and ‘Black’, and you’ll find a whole bunch of scholarships,” I have often said, typically pointing out how searching for scholarships is much easier now than when I went to college before the advent of Google.

My advice has paid off. For instance, two of my protégés won $5,000 scholarships from the Luther Vandross Foundation, named after the legendary soul singer, so beloved among Black people in the US that he is often referred to solely by his first name – Luther – sort of how older generations refer to Elvis.

Luther’s foundation awards scholarships to students enrolled in HBCUs, or historically Black colleges and universities. These are institutions established during legalised racial segregation – prior to 1964, to be specific – to educate Black students in the US. A handful were established before the Civil War.

One of my protégés – Malik Castro-Devarona – won the $5,000 Luther Vandross scholarship two years in a row. That put a significant dent in Malik’s financial obligations to his now-alma mater, Howard University, an elite, Washington, DC-based HBCU where the average annual cost of attendance exceeds $50,000. The median total debt after graduation is $24,500.

For the most part, my advice to search for “Black scholarships” is still useful.

For instance, if a person went to scholarships360.org  and typed “Black” into the search bar, they’d find a “Scholar Dollars” Essay Scholarship for Black Students, worth $1,000; the Black at Microsoft, or BAM scholarship, which offers up to $5,000 for students majoring in STEM or business; and the Ron Brown Scholarship, a four-year, $40,000 scholarship for “intellectually gifted” African American students.

Nevertheless, recent developments suggest I may have to update my advice to Black students on how to find scholarship money. That’s because ever since the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that colleges and universities can no longer legally consider race in admissions, conservative activists – and the second Trump administration itself – have been seeking to apply the same principle to scholarships. That is to say, they don’t want to see any scholarships designed specifically for Black students and other historically underrepresented groups. They only want to see scholarships that everyone can win regardless of race.

As a longtime journalist who specialises in higher education, I’ve written extensively about the life-changing role that Black-oriented scholarships have played in the lives of Black students.

“Being a Ron Brown scholar has allowed me to take my college experience to the next level,” Christopher Lyle told me in 2012 during a Ronald H. Brown American Journey Awards ceremony that I covered. Lyle – who received the Ron Brown scholarship in 2008 and went on to earn an MBA in 2019 from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the same business school from which President Trump graduated in 1968 – is currently Senior Manager of Revenue Strategy & Operations at DoorDash, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Ron Brown scholarship is named after President Clinton’s secretary of commerce – and the first African American to hold the position – who was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1996 during an official trade mission to Eastern Europe.

But scholarships such as the Ron Brown scholarship are becoming more scarce.

In my home state of Wisconsin, for example, the state’s Supreme Court struck down a state taxpayer-funded scholarship known as the Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program. The programme, established by law in 1985, provided grants of up to $2,500 for low-income students of colour, specifically those who are Black, Native American, Hispanic, or certain Southeast Asian students who arrived in the US after December 31, 1975. The rationale behind offering the retention grant to such students is that they tended to leave college without a degree at higher rates than white and Asian students. But the Wisconsin high court rejected the idea, saying the scholarship could have been offered in a race-neutral way.

The Wisconsin case is part of a much larger trend in the US.

Since the Supreme Court outlawed the use of race in college admissions in 2023, the percentage of scholarships that base eligibility on race, ethnicity, gender or other demographic factors has dropped to 11 percent, down from 15 percent at the time of the decision, the Washington Post reports, citing data from the National Scholarship Providers Association.

William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School Professor and Founder of the Equal Protection Project, an initiative that challenges race-based scholarships as discriminatory, welcomes the trend of moving “away from the race-obsessed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda”.

“To the extent scholarships are eliminating race and ethnicity as eligibility requirements, that is a good thing,” Professor Jacobson told me via his legalinsurrection.com email address.  “Scholarships should be available to students without regard to race or ethnicity.”

Professor Jacobson noted that institutions can still legally take a student’s hardship into account, but “we cannot assume hardship merely based on skin pigmentation or ancestry, which reinforces negative stereotypes that some races and ethnicities are inherently less capable.”

Not all justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court agree with that sentiment.

“Why, instead of wielding the Equal Protection Clause as a sword against racism, do we employ it to shield against the promise of equality for all?” Justice Jill Karofsky asked. She argued that programmes such as the Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program “could be constitutional under an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that honours its purpose - to combat oppression”.

Wisconsin State Senator Dora Drake, a Democrat, worries that people are going too far in seeking to apply the 2023 Supreme Court ban on race-conscious affirmative action to scholarships. Drake benefitted from the Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant during her time at Marquette University. She graduated in 2015.

One of Drake’s staffers told QS Insights the Wisconsin lawmaker is looking at creating a scholarship that would use a factor such as a student’s zip code – rather than race – to determine eligibility.

Not all cases that concern race-based scholarships are being brought on behalf of aggrieved white or Asian individuals who – as was the case in Wisconsin – purportedly felt discriminated against because their race or ethnicity precluded them from being able to compete for a scholarship.

In 2025, the University of Iowa sought court approval to modify a scholarship named after Dr Ezra L. Totton, a distinguished Black chemistry professor who bequeathed the fund to show his gratitude to the university for admitting him to its graduate chemistry programme during the racial segregation period known as Jim Crow.

Dr Totton’s estate specifically stated that the $35,000 he willed to the university should be invested and that 90 percent of the interest should go to scholarships for Black students majoring in the physical sciences, preferably chemistry. But the university, fearing reprisals under the emergent view that the 2023 Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious affirmative action applies to scholarships, sought court approval to change the words “Black students” to first-generation students.

Iowa’s high court disagreed, stating that while the university had a valid concern about the legal risks of administering a race-based scholarship, there was no basis not to honour the intent of the donor, who in this case indicated that the funds should be returned if the university could not distribute the funds as he requested.

The high court in Iowa also rejected the university’s argument that giving the scholarship funds to first-generation students would honour Dr Totton’s wishes.

“There is a world of difference between Dr Totton’s experience as a victim of a pernicious regime of de jure racial segregation and the life of a first-generation college student today at the University,” the Iowa Supreme Court wrote. The high court sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.

Not all disputes are being settled in court.

For instance, when the University of North Carolina Wilmington told the family of the late Dr Leroy Upperman that under new diversity restrictions, a scholarship the family had been awarding could no longer be directed toward Black students, the family yanked the $1 million endowment that supported the scholarship and transferred it to Howard University, a HBCU.

“There's no way that we’re going to not follow my father’s wishes for the money to go to an African American student, so we’re not changing the wording,” Dr Upperman’s daughter, Linda Upperman Smith, told WHQR in explaining the rationale behind moving the endowment to Howard, where her father earned a medical degree in 1938 before becoming one of the first Black physicians to practice in Wilmington.

Experts warn that stance may be harder to take in the future.

“I think that, going forward, donors and colleges will have to design scholarships around legally permissible factors related to educational inequality,” Marybeth Gasman, chair and Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, told QS Insights.

She said the new criteria could include family income, eligibility for federal student aid, being a first-generation student or living in an area where few students attend college.

“I do think it’s important to be honest about these substitutions, however,” Professor Gasman said. “Being first gen is not the same as being Black in America, for example. There can be overlap, but erasing attention to race and racism is very dangerous given our history of discrimination.”

Professor Gasman said if race-neutral criteria are used, colleges will need to regularly evaluate whether they are reaching the students whose barriers actually were the reason for the scholarship.

Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert, said scholarships could expand outreach to underrepresented minorities, even as they shift the selection criteria to racially neutral criteria.

“If you increase the number of minority applicants, you will increase the number of minority recipients even if the criteria are purely neutral,” Kantrowitz said.

In terms of my advice to Black students going forward, no matter how lamentable the loss of race-specific scholarships as a remedy to past racial injustices may be, it is not something worth dwelling on.

It’d be far better, in my opinion, to study, volunteer in the community, pursue extracurricular activities and find one’s purpose in a way that makes one a more competitive candidate for scholarships of all kinds, not just the ones set aside for Black students.

Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a veteran education journalist who resides in Washington, D.C. His articles have appeared in Washington Monthly, Education Week and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. An avid chess player, Jamaal was named “Chess Journalist of the Year” in 2013. Known as “Professor J” among his students at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he teaches journalism, Jamaal is the founding editor of Sneaker Theory, a website that grew out of a project he did to complete a “Sneaker Essentials” course in 2024 at the Fashion Institute of Technology.