⚖️ Teaching judgment may be Higher Ed’s most important role.
Judgment rises as a core skill, while AI partnerships and programs expand globally. AI in Higher Education Webinar 31 March.
Hello 👋
As AI commoditises knowledge retrieval and task execution, the capabilities that can't be automated such as ethical reasoning, cross-disciplinary judgment could likely become the primary value proposition of higher education. At Global Skills Week 2026, Dartmouth Provost Dr Santiago Schnell articulated the inflection point directly: in an era where answers are cheap, it is judgment that carries a premium. AI has the potential to augment or automate a variety of professions and the landscape of that changes daily as the technology advances.
The tension is acute: institutions are being asked to prove short-term employability while the economy's actual long-term demand is for capabilities that take years to build and are notoriously hard to credential. Expect growing pressure on institutions to develop robust graduate outcomes frameworks that go beyond salary data, mapping the harder-to-measure skills.
Read more about the conversation at Global Skills Week: Institutional Strategy and Value Creation in the New Skills Economy.
👉 For more insights on the education market, go to the QS Analytics Platform if you are customer or request a demo to learn more.
💻 WEBINAR TOMORROW: Experiments to Ecosystems: AI in Higher Education. 31 March.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving beyond isolated pilots and experiments to reshape entire universities. But what does effective, institution-wide AI adoption actually look like in practice?
Join us for this webinar explores how higher education institutions around the world are integrating AI across teaching, research, and university operations. Drawing on international case studies and expert perspectives, the session will examine how universities are moving from experimentation to coordinated, system-level transformation.
⭐ AI & Digital Innovation Spotlight
🌏 Louisiana State University is launching a new bachelor’s degree in AI so that students can learn the ethics of using AI and expand their knowledge on GenAI.
🧠 The University of Wisconsin is offering free online courses through a program, ASAP (AI Skills Access Passport), to help learners better understand AI.
🤖 Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) unveiled a plan to integrate applied AI skills into all of its degree programs, aiming to reach all students.
🤝 Policy & Partnerships
🤝 Infosys and University of Nottingham have extended their strategic partnership to modernize the university’s digital infrastructure, with a focus on upgrading student management systems and accelerating cloud adoption.
✨ upGrad has partnered with Munich Business School to launch hybrid MBA and MS Finance programs for Indian professionals.The collaboration also aims to lower the cost of international education and create more pathways to the European industry.
֎ Google and Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan are exploring an AI partnership to integrate advanced AI tools into higher education for teaching, research, and developing workforce-ready skills.
💪 Power Moves & Funding
🌐 The Competition Commission of India approved the merger of online education platforms Coursera and Udemy, creating a new entity valued at around $2.5B.
🤖 UpSurgeOn, a company from Milan, Italy, develops surgical simulation and training platforms, has raised $5.75M
🖥️ GlobalNxt has acquired GlobalNxt University in Malaysia from Manipal Education to enhance its portfolio.
📈 World ORT and ORT America, two organizations focused on education and vocational training, have merged to become one global entity called World ORT.
