🧠 What is AI making more valuable in education? Come for the debate at Back to School, Sept 15–17.

Hello 👋

Many people are still thinking about what AI takes away, but the more productive conversation (the one this year's Back to School Summit program keeps in focus) is what it makes more valuable.

Answers are easier than ever to get, right ones and wrong ones, but judgment isn't, and neither is knowing which question is worth asking, reading a situation, or deciding what should be built even if it can be. Those capabilities have always been taught over decades of learning from empathy building in early literacy education to the class on ethics in computer science at a university.

Employers, too, name human cognitive skills and human-centered leadership as most in demand, ahead of technical ability. The approaches that aim to close those gaps is where the next decade of teaching and learning work is headed.

Three Back to School sessions take it up:

• The human advantage: who you are, not what you know, with Packback, Unify America and Binghamton's provost, on whether arts and humanities capabilities are becoming a competitive advantage
• If AI has the answers, what should we teach?, with Tecnológico de Monterrey, Ajman University and The Global Nexus Collective, on what changes when every student arrives with a capable model
• Gen Z: the next generation of leaders — or a generation left behind?, with UConn, University at Buffalo and Britebound, on the cohort entering this market first
• From signals to skills: how higher education keeps pace with a changing labor market, opening Day 2 with the QS World Future Skills Index, on where the gaps are opening across 89 economies and what universities, employers and governments should do about them
  

Back to School, 15–17 September, Tribeca Rooftop + 360°, NYC | BTSADS20 for 20% off

The Summit runs September 15–17 in New York City, bringing together leaders across higher education, business, government, investment and technology to work through the forces reshaping society and the global economy. Geopolitical change, demographic pressure and technological disruption are redefining competitiveness. This milestone edition looks at how institutions prepare for the next 25 years of leadership, talent and innovation.

💻 QS Webinars

Decoding AI, EdTech and the future of higher education

Discover how universities are using AI and innovation to stay relevant, resilient and future-ready. Learn what’s working, and how to apply it, in this insight-driven webinar series.

Missed this week's Innovation Series webinar? Watch it on demand

The AI-Ready University

As artificial intelligence moves from experimentation to institution-wide adoption, university leaders face a new challenge: building the governance, infrastructure, skills and culture needed to use AI responsibly and at scale.

Grounded in the QS AI Capability Framework and supported by Google Cloud, this four-part webinar series brings together QS experts, Google leaders and US university perspectives. Each session explores a critical area of institutional readiness: governance, campus operations, teaching and learning, and research.

Catch the Series live or on-demand.

📍 Upcoming Education Innovation Events

⭐ AI & Digital Innovation Spotlight

☁️ India goes national on cloud skills. NSDC, Cultus Education and AWS launched a countrywide cloud and AI training initiative, putting vendor-certified pathways into the youth employability pipeline at scale.

🎓 Google takes AI access to zero cost for students. Eligible students worldwide now get a free one-year AI Pro plan including Gemini. Frontier tooling arrives on campus through the student, ahead of any institutional procurement decision.

📚 Chicago widens its classroom restrictions. The University of Chicago extended its ban on AI and other technology across more courses, betting that assessment integrity is worth the friction. Expect more institutions to differentiate on where AI is permitted rather than whether.

🤝 Policy & Partnerships

🏛️ Accreditation change on the table. The US Department of Education proposed an accreditation overhaul aimed at faster programme approval and clearer accountability, creating an opening for new provider models.

🎓 Health workforce pipelines are getting built by partnerships. Samuel Merritt University signed 16 enrolment partnerships across colleges, health systems and community organisations, bundling tuition discounts and reimbursement into a single route to nursing and health sciences degrees.

🤖 South Korea trains the state. New governance measures require public officials to complete AI training; governments are becoming a substantial buyer of workforce AI education.

💪 Power Moves & Funding

Money moved this week toward building capacity rather than buying growth: solutions for learning and work, research infrastructure, reach into new markets, and combined institutional footprint.

🧠 Gates commits $540M to global health data. The foundation made a record grant to the University of Washington to underwrite the Global Burden of Disease study, an example of philanthropy funding long-horizon university research infrastructure.

🧑‍💻 BOOKR raises Series A for global expansion. The Budapest literacy platform closed a Series A to move into Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Evidence-based literacy products that use AI around core reading skills are finding investor appetite.

🤝 Elon and Queens agree to merge. Elon University and Queens University of Charlotte announced a strategic merger, consolidating provision in the Charlotte market. Combination as a growth strategy, rather than a distress outcome, is the framing worth tracking.