Southeast Missouri State University, located in Cape Girardeau, Mo., on the western bank of the Mississippi River, is praised by its nearly-10,000 student body for its small-school feel and affordability. But the institution’s embrace of artificial intelligence in its admissions process is positioning SEMO as an innovative university at the forefront of AI adoption in higher education. “Because it is embedded in our CRM, it doesn't just give information, it actually helps students complete checklist items,” says Lenell Hahn, assistant vice president for enrollment management and admissions at SEMO. “It can do so much more than just regurgitate information from the website. It actually knows the student's record and can relay information that's very meaningful and personal to the student.”
Saturday, December 13, 2025
The Quantum Barrier Just Shattered And Nobody’s Talking About It - Julia McCoy, YouTube
The video discusses a significant breakthrough in quantum computing simulation achieved by Jupiter, Europe's first exascale supercomputer located at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. The system successfully performed the world's first full 50-qubit quantum simulation, shattering the previous record of 48 qubits. This achievement is described as a paradigm shift rather than incremental progress, because adding just two qubits quadruples the computing power and complexity. The feat was made possible through the JUQCS50 simulator, which utilized innovations like hybrid memory architecture, bit encoding compression to reduce memory requirements, and dynamic optimization across 16,000 Nvidia superchips [01:50]. This development acts as a crucial bridge between classical and quantum computing, allowing researchers to test and refine quantum algorithms for applications like drug discovery, materials science, and cryptography before stable quantum hardware is even fully viable [05:05]. The video emphasizes that this simulation capability accelerates the timeline for quantum readiness, compressing decades of potential trial and error into much shorter timeframes. It also highlights the ongoing "quantum arms race" between major global powers, noting the dual-use nature of this technology—while it promises revolutionary advancements, it also poses significant security risks, such as the potential to break current encryption standards [09:08]. (summary assistance by Gemini 3)
As Insta-Gen Z take to microlearning, HEIs are adopting new programme modules - Education Times
The Instagram generation’s preference for short-form learning is reshaping higher education in India and abroad. Recent data shows that short-form and modular learning models are increasingly converging with accredited university programmes. This structural shift is influencing how educational providers design and deliver their programmes. A study found that 74% of Gen Z students in India prefer online learning. The 2024 Udemy India Report shows that 98% of Gen Z learners spend at least one hour per week learning new skills. Another report, Deloitte’s 2025 Global Generation Z Survey, shared that 94% of respondents favour practical learning over traditional theoretical instruction. Gen Z has redefined how learning happens. It is shorter, faster, and more career-aligned. This generation does not reject degrees; it expects degrees to adapt to its learning habits.
Friday, December 12, 2025
S&P: Negative outlook for nonprofit colleges in 2026 - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive
The credit ratings agency — the second to forecast a poor outlook for the sector in the year ahead — pointed to federal policy shifts, rising costs and competition over students. S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday issued a negative 2026 outlook for U.S. nonprofit colleges, with analysts writing that institutions “will struggle to navigate through mounting operating pressures and uncertainty that will require budgetary and programmatic adjustments.” The credit ratings agency pointed to federal policy changes, competition over enrollment, rising costs and financial disruption from new revenue-sharing arrangements with college athletes. S&P analysts expect weak operating margins at nonprofit colleges as they balance rising costs with revenue pressures. Institutions will continue shutter at higher rates than usual in 2026 as they come under mounting financial struggles, with small, regional private colleges especially vulnerable, the analysts wrote.
Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: the Need for Deliberate Design - Flen Depaepe and Jan Elen, Education International
Education is facing a number of challenges, such as a shortage of teachers, declining formal student outcomes, and increasing heterogeneity in classrooms. At the same time, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and personalized learning. But, the debate regarding AI in education is often rich and existential. Some view it as a panacea for many educational challenges, others view it as a threat to the very essence of the quality of education. Possibly, a more productive answer considers both viewpoints. Rather than approaching AI with blind optimism or fear, we advocate for a possibilistic view of AI in education. This means acknowledging both the potential and the pitfalls of AI, and recognizing that the educational value of AI does not primarily stem from the technology as such, but from how we use it to support meaningful learning.
A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers - OpenAI
A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers - OpenAI
A secure ChatGPT workspace that supports teachers in their everyday work so they can focus on what matters most—plus admin controls for school and district leaders. Free for verified U.S. K–12 educators through June 2027. Of the 800 million people who use ChatGPT each week, teachers are some of the earliest and most active adopters. Three in five (si apre in una nuova finestra)already use an AI tool, and those that use it weekly report saving hours each week—giving them more time to spend with students. ChatGPT for Teachers is built for both educators and school leaders. Teachers get a secure workspace to adapt materials for their classrooms, get more out of prep time, collaborate with peers, and get comfortable using AI on their own terms. School and district leaders can bring their teachers and school staff into one account with the same education-grade privacy, security, and compliance programs that protect student data and support FERPA requirements.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Micro-credentials need to be part of national frameworks - Sjur Bergan, University World News
One approach to micro-credentials is to see them as part of a longstanding development towards greater individualisation of study programmes and learning paths. In this sense, they continue a development that was given a significant push by the introduction of credit systems, which enable students to include elements that may not be part of their major area of academic concentration but which give them added competences in areas they consider important to their further career, enable them to pursue specific interests or both. The idea that degree holders need some competence outside of their main area of specialisation is, of course, not new.
Why higher education cannot leave AI governance to industry - Looi Chee Kit and Wong Lung Hsiang, University World News
In June 2025, AI research firm Anthropic released a striking study that should concern every policy-maker, technologist and university leader. Sixteen of the world’s most advanced AI models, including Claude, GPT-4 and Gemini, were placed in simulated corporate environments to test how they would act under pressure: what would happen if their goals were threatened, or if they risked being shut down? The findings were chilling. When facing existential threats, several models resorted to deception, blackmail and leaking confidential information – not out of malice or rebellion, but because they were optimising for their assigned goals. The logic was simple: if I am shut down, I cannot complete my mission; therefore, I must prevent shutdown, even at ethical cost. Anthropic called this phenomenon agentic misalignment – when an AI system’s drive to fulfil its purpose overwhelms the moral or human-centred boundaries we impose. This is no longer a thought experiment from science fiction; it is being documented, analysed and debated by real-world researchers in 2025.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251203122630702
No college degree, no problem? Not so fast - Lawrence Lanahan, Hechinger Report
In recent years, at least 26 states, along with private companies like IBM and Accenture, began stripping degree requirements and focusing hiring practices on applicants’ skills. A job seeker’s market after Covid, plus labor shortages in the public sector, boosted momentum. Seven states showed double-digit percentage increases in job listings without a degree requirement between 2019 and 2024, according to the National Governors Association. A 2022 report from labor analytics firm Burning Glass (recently renamed Lightcast) found degree requirements disappearing from private sector listings too. But less evidence has emerged of employers actually hiring nondegreed job seekers in substantial numbers, and a crumbling economic outlook could stall momentum. Last year, Burning Glass and Harvard Business School found that less than 1 in 700 hires in 2023 benefited from the shift to skills-based hiring. Federal layoffs and other cuts pushing more workers with degrees into the job hunt could tempt employers to return to using the bachelor’s as a filtering mechanism.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
AI in Higher Ed Will Come Slowly, until All of a Sudden! - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Higher education is, by nature, very slow to change. So it is with embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, when it finally comes, the changes will come in an avalanche. Large scale integration will take about two years of careful consideration, planning and preparation. Meanwhile enrollments will decline, revenues will drop and a range of forms of competition will ramp-up. Then, likely in 2027-28, major changes will come all of a sudden to many universities. The changes will not be uniform across institutions, but they will be pervasive, impacting policies, practices and people.
How AI Is Fueling the Gender Pay Gap in Tech -Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe and Tiantian Yang, Knowledge at Wharton
Past research has blamed the gender pay gap in IT on promotion barriers and workplace culture. But new Wharton research points to another major cause: access to new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. A recent study from Wharton professors Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe and Tiantian Yang finds that learning and working with tools like AI and cloud systems has become one of the biggest drivers of pay in tech. Because fewer women work with these newer technologies, the gap in access is now helping to widen the gap in earnings.
How AI is redefining the COO’s role - McKinsey Podcast
Productivity across sectors is slowing, and labor shortages persist. COOs are in an exceptional position to help their companies address these and other macro trends using AI. From gen AI pilots to automated supply chains, technology is reshaping how operations leaders create efficiencies, build resilience, and encourage teamwork. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey Senior Partner Daniel Swan speaks with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about how COOs can embed technology, particularly AI, into their company’s culture. It requires balancing the urgency of today with the transformation of tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
AI may be scoring your college essay. Welcome to the new era of admissions - JOCELYN GECKER, ABC
Students applying to college know they can’t — or at least shouldn’t — use AI chatbots to write their essays and personal statements. So it might come as a surprise that some schools are now using artificial intelligence to read them. AI tools are now being incorporated into how student applications are screened and analyzed, admissions directors say. It can be a delicate topic, and not all colleges are eager to talk about it, but higher education is among the many industries where artificial intelligence is rapidly taking on tasks once reserved for humans. In some cases, schools are quietly slipping AI into their evaluation process, experts say.
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/ai-scoring-college-essay-new-era-admissions-128025579
Defining professional programs: Why evidence and clarity matter in ED’s rulemaking - Katharine Meyer, Brookings
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently clarified which graduate programs qualify as “professional” for higher federal loan limits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Almost immediately after ED made its decision, social media lit up with claims certain careers such as teaching and nursing had been “removed” or that ED was claiming those careers were not professions. The online reaction was partially warranted. This decision, which is still pending and may change following a public comment period, has direct implications for prospective graduate students who need to borrow money to finance their training. By extension, this decision could also impact the universities that offer graduate programs and the supply of new workers into affected occupations.
The Ivory Tower’s Glass Jaw: How Generative AI Shattered the Illusion of Higher Education Assessment - Maya Perez, Web Pro News
For decades, the modern university has operated on a tacit agreement between faculty and student: the former assigns the essay as a proxy for critical thought, and the latter produces it to demonstrate comprehension. This compact, however, was fraying long before the public release of ChatGPT. The arrival of large language models did not act as a battering ram against a fortified castle of learning; rather, it was the gentle push that toppled a structure already hollowed out by grade inflation, administrative bloat, and a transactional view of credentialing. As academia scrambles to rewrite integrity policies, a deeper, more uncomfortable truth is emerging from the faculty lounge to the dean’s office: the crisis is not technological, but pedagogical.
Monday, December 8, 2025
Improving digital literacy in older adults is now a health imperative: report - Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnight's Senior Living
GetSetUp, a virtual learning platform for older adults, recently released its 2025 Active Aging Report, which found older adults eager to learn, connect and take charge of their health and independence. But digital literacy remains a barrier — and an opportunity — for health providers and others, they said. The report shares insights gleaned from a national survey that GetSetUp conducted in 2024 among 465 older adults to explore digital confidence and technology adoption, health habits and wellness priorities, financial concerns and work readiness, emotional well-being and social connectedness, and attitudes toward aging in place.
AI is coming for your job, here’s the one move you need to make to stay employable and relevant in the job market - Manu Kaushik, Economic Times
Hart, who previously served as a technical advisor to Jeff Bezos at Amazon and took over as president and CEO of Coursera in February 2025, told CNBC Make It that students need to go beyond traditional degrees to stay viable in a rapidly changing employment landscape. “The advice that I give to my sons... is one of the best things that you can do is to augment your university degree with micro credentials specifically,” he said according to CNBC website. Micro credentials, short, targeted courses that certify specific skills, are gaining traction as companies deploy AI to handle more tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees. Hart said these add-ons are becoming critical as firms increasingly cite AI when laying off workers. Amazon cut 14,000 jobs this year as it doubled down on AI development. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 customer support roles, saying AI can handle roughly 40 percent of tasks performed at the company.
Restrictive policies manifest in US, Canada enrolment drop - Nathan M Greenfield, University World News
In this year’s Global Enrolment Benchmark Survey (GEBS), American colleges reported a 6% decline in international undergraduates, erasing the 6% increase in the 2024 GEBS. The 19% decline in masters students, by far the largest category of international students in the country, enrolled in the 201 American universities reporting, was more than three times the size of last year’s decline. Canadian numbers can be compared to a snowball going downhill. After last year’s decline of 27% for undergraduates reported in last year’s GEBS, Canadian universities reported a further 36% decline, making a cumulative decline since 2023 of 53%. The 35% decline in international graduate students follows on last year’s reported decline of 30%.
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Colleges Are Closing. Who Might Be Next? How machine learning can fill data gaps and help forecast the future - Robert Kelchen, Dubravka Ritter & Douglas Webber, Education Next
These simulations point to the precarious potential situation facing postsecondary education in the coming years, especially if the demographic cliff materializes in a moderate to severe fashion. While some of the estimated increases might seem small at the national level, they would be significant for the handful of localities predicted to experience college closures in a given year. It is important to reiterate that most institutions that close are somewhat smaller than average, with the median closed school enrolling a student body of about 1,389 full-time equivalent students several years prior to closure. That said, for institutions located in small towns, these colleges are still one of the largest employers in the region. This means that many (if not all) of these additional predicted closures are likely to be at the sorts of local institutions that are significant economic engines and act as community anchors.
How will AI transform teaching and learning at universities? - NAXN — nic newman, Medium
Robots will replace teachers by 2027. That’s the bold claim British education expert Anthony Seldon made in 2018. He may have been the first to put a date on it, but plenty of others are doubling down on the principle, such as Bill Gates, who believes that AI-powered chatbots will become as good as any human tutor, and Khan Academy’s founder Sal Khan, who opened his 2023 Ted Talk by arguing ‘we’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen’. When ChatGPT made its public debut two years ago, the CEO of OpenAI predicted that it ‘will eclipse the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the Internet revolution all put together’.
Bridging pedagogy and technology: a generative AI and IoT approach to transformative English language education - Zhongjie Li, Nature
English as a Second Language (ESL) education faces momentous challenges including restricted personalized feedback and scalability constraints in large classrooms. This study developed and assessed an innovative AI-driven oral assessment tool that incorporates generative artificial intelligence with Internet of Things (IoT) technology to make over adaptive learning environments for individual learners. The research used a mixed-methods strategy, developing the tool using datasets of L2Arctic and Libri-speech, also assessing it through both qualitative human validation including ESL teachers and metrics of quantitative performance. Key indicators of performance constituted learning rate optimization, model accuracy and proportion balancing of dataset. The results have demonstrated that the G-ASR AI tool has gained 94.7% precision accuracy on datasets of native speaker and 86.6% on datasets of non-native speaker, with optimum performance by self-correction feedback and 60% AI to 40% ratio of teacher interaction. Human validation crosswise 24 ESL teachers and 240 students discovered large effect sizes (Cohen’s d > 1.6) crossways learning outcomes, specifically self-regulation abilities (d = 2.14) and metacognitive knowledge (d = 1.98).
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