The ‘AI and Future of Work’ Series — How the University is preparing students for what is next - Lidia Zur Muhlen, Cavalier Daily

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, college graduates of the last three years are entering a challenging job market. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 5.7 percent in Q1 of 2026, compared with 4.23 percent for workers overall. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2019, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 4.3 percent and for workers overall, was 3.5 percent. In a recent Gallup Inc poll, 79 percent of Americans believe that artificial intelligence will reduce the number of jobs over the next 10 years. A recent study by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab has found no evidence of “widespread” job displacement. The study looked at young workers ages 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations — jobs in which AI can perform most of the tasks like customer service and software development. Ultimately, its findings illuminated that there would have been a 19 percent drop in employment in late 2026 for AI-exposed jobs if the market kept pace with less AI-exposed occupations’ employment trends.

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2026/10/the-ai-and-future-of-work-series-how-the-university-is-preparing-students-for-what-is-next

New AI Framework Teaches Robots to Choose Their Own Skills and When to Use Them - Bioengineer

One of the most stubborn problems in artificial intelligence is teaching an agent to carry out tasks that stretch far into the future, where rewards arrive rarely and the path to success is measured in hundreds of small decisions. A robot asked to stack blocks into a pyramid or open a microwave must chain together dozens of primitive motions, and a learning algorithm that treats every one of those motions as an independent choice quickly drowns in the sheer scale of the search. Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and collaborating institutions have now unveiled a framework that tackles this problem head-on by letting an agent learn not only which skills to deploy, but also how long each skill should last, adapting that timing on the fly as circumstances change.

https://bioengineer.org/new-ai-framework-teaches-robots-to-choose-their-own-skills-and-when-to-use-them/

Building digital skills and career opportunities - Age UK

At 60, Mahmoud is exploring a new career direction after spending several months unemployed. With support from Age UK Islington, he is developing his digital skills, improving his ability to search for work and exploring the possibility of becoming self-employed. He was particularly interested in digital marketing, including content creation, website development and building applications. With rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), Mahmoud recognised that there was a great deal to learn and wanted to develop the skills needed to pursue opportunities in this field. Participating in online courses and managing a job search presented practical challenges, particularly when courses required learners to take part in discussions, complete activities and respond to questions online. Age UK Islington worked with Mahmoud to understand his circumstances and identify ways to help him move forward with his employment and learning goals. With this support, Mahmoud has been able to make progress with his online learning and take more active steps towards finding work.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/islington/about-us/news/2026/building-digital-skills-and-career-opportunities/

The AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behind - the Guardian.org

Women made up only about a quarter of new hires in AI roles in the last year, compared to 50% of new hires in non-AI roles, according to a recent report from LinkedIn. In executive roles, that number drops to just 13%. At the same time, LinkedIn’s research shows that women are more likely to work in roles with high exposure to AI disruption, like customer service, meaning they are also at higher risk for job loss due to AI. AI jobs, whose postings have doubled since 2023, come with a salary premium, on average paying more than twice as much as roles that don’t involve working with AI, according to LinkedIn’s research. But women who do have jobs in AI are disproportionately concentrated in low-paying roles, like data annotators, said Sarah Steinberg, the head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn. Across all AI occupations, men have $45,000 higher median pay than women, partly due to the types of jobs they are likelier to have. “AI is creating some of the fastest growing, highest paying and most consequential jobs in the global economy,” said Steinberg. “Women are just strikingly underrepresented.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/04/women-ai-jobs-inequality

Universities urged to build coalitions to address SDGs - Kalinga Seneviratne, University World News

Universities should take part in growing “multi-stakeholder coalitions” in society to strengthen education for sustainable development (ESD). That was the key message of a two-hour webinar organised on 30 September by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) of the United Nations and attended by over 150 participants from across the world, many of whom were not academics. In presenting a HESI toolkit on how to grow the green and sustainable economy, the convenor, Debra Rowe, who has been the president of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development for twenty years, said that by bringing in a diversity of groups working on green development, including finance and development experts, “we've been talking about a multi-stakeholder coalition.”

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20261002102236341

Community knowledge belongs at the heart of higher education - Jack Layton and Sue Griffiths, University World News

In recent years, universities in the United Kingdom have scrutinised their relationships with neighbouring communities – exploring what these should and could look like. That requires asking what it takes to undertake meaningful community engagement, how their research can contribute to local economic growth and how their facilities can be repurposed to support local health and well-being.Part of this is about recognising that the traditional academic ecosystem can be detached from people’s everyday lives and concerns. Data extracted from places. Research trapped behind paywalls. Value derived from rankings and citations. Last week, the Institute for Community Studies at the Young Foundation launched the Journal for Community Studies. The journal brings academic research into direct conversation with community voice, lived experience and practical knowledge. It challenges a persistent imbalance in how evidence is produced and valued, where communities are too often treated as subjects of study rather than partners in inquiry.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260930112346517

College Leaders Are Using A.I. Students Call It Hypocrisy. - Mark Arsenault and Alan Blinder, NY Times

College professors and administrators have been busting students for cheating with artificial intelligence for several years. Now, the professors and administrators are getting in trouble, too. Dartmouth College last week announced it was investigating its provost, Santiago Schnell, after the college’s student-run newspaper found that some of his published writing appeared written by A.I. Dr. Schnell, a mathematical biologist, is perhaps the most prominent in a growing cast of college professors and administrators who have been accused of using A.I. in a way that crosses ethical lines. There have been instances of opinion articles, research papers and even campuswide messages to students showing traces of A.I. influence. He issued a statement apologizing. Administrators wring their hands, and sometime issue punishments, when students outsource writing assignments to a robot to save time or avoid the hard work of thinking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/college-professors-administrators-ai-dartmouth.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FVE.V8JL.tY_Q3iRPn0wJ&smid=url-share

Career Prep When No One Knows What’s Next - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Cameron Sublett, senior director of innovation and incubation at FoundationCCC, which supports California’s community colleges, explained that job forecasting—with its direct implications for the postsecondary mission—has “always been a mad science,” and that AI disruption has added “so many more layers of complexity, confusion and noise.” Citing the economist David Autor, Sublett said that society is now in an “era of artificial intelligence uncertainty,” in which “history and secular trends no longer hold their predictive value.” Competing studies on AI’s labor-market effects regularly contradict each other, absent standard measures or methodologies, he continued. Shawn VanDerziel, president and CEO of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, agreed that “the current employment environment is challenging for job seekers and employers.” That’s due to the uncertainty around AI, but also the broader economy and policy shifts, including on tariffs, he said.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/life-after-college/2026/09/29/future-proofing-graduates-uncertain-labor-market

Can GenAI actually help build better learning modules? - Toni Jones, et al; RMIT Australia

Building a high-quality online learning module is a substantial undertaking that involves a range of tasks, such as writing and organising content, developing activities, sourcing multimedia, structuring pages for accessibility, and aligning it all with learning outcomes. At GAILE, we've been curious about where Gen AI might help in that process, and where it does not. Gen AI can accelerate the production of learning resources, but its outputs still require careful educational judgement. We have previously explored how Gen AI can support lesson planning, learning simulations and question generation, and across these examples, a consistent pattern has emerged. Without expert guidance, AI-generated content can be fluent yet generic. The educator therefore remains central to shaping outputs through pedagogical knowledge, critical review and instructional expertise.

https://www.rmit.edu.au/about/educational-ai/blog/can-genai-help-build-better-learning-modules

From AGI to ASI - Tim Genewein, et al; arXiv

After characterizing ASI, the report discusses four potential pathways from AGI to ASI: scaling AGI, AI paradigm shifts, recursive improvement, and ASI emerging from large-scale multi-agent collectives. The report then discusses possible frictions and bottlenecks along these pathways. Determining whether the impact of these frictions will be negligible or substantial raises a number of concrete open research questions. Due to large uncertainties for predicting ASI progress, it cannot be ruled out that AI progress might continue to accelerate over the next years. This could imply that the image of a single transformative step change, caused by the introduction of human-level AGI into our society, could be inaccurate. More apt might be the prospect of a series of transformative societal changes caused by AI-enabled progress and breakthroughs across many areas of science and technology. Preparing for this prospect requires a massively interdisciplinary endeavour of global scope and interest.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12683

How one president is creating new pathways for older students - Alcino Donadel, University Business

The Western New Mexico University president has a personal stake in this mission. A GED graduate, Coll was a firefighter and Marine before he entered college. His work portfolio and community college certificates helped him earn his associate degree, a critical moment that propelled him into higher education leadership. “I see my own lived experience in so many of our students,” says Coll, a former provost of Western Oregon University. “Those who come in with a GED to be a welder should be able to come back a year later to start working on their baccalaureate degree, and eventually their master’s.” “This is the value of our university,” he adds, “to embrace students where they’re at.” Building new academic pathways is also a vital enrollment strategy. Demographic changes have imperiled most institutions’ traditional student pipeline, forcing leaders to create onramps for adults and programs that entice stopped-out students to return to college.

https://universitybusiness.com/from-ged-to-university-president-jose-coll-is-redesigning-the-student-journey/

Friendship is built over time, through ordinary moments – I teach lonely college students to notice them - Justin Vaughn, the Conversation

Many new students want close relationships, but feel anxious about initiating them and have had little practice sustaining them.I realized that my students rarely spoke to one another, and went entire semesters without learning their classmates’ names. Many students seemed unsure how to cross the few feet between them and their peers and make the social connection they craved. Factual. Free. For everyone. I designed a freshman honors seminar, “Friendship & Society,” around this uncertainty, combining the academic study of friendship with practical exercises in forming and sustaining it.

https://theconversation.com/friendship-is-built-over-time-through-ordinary-moments-i-teach-lonely-college-students-to-notice-them-291953

Education agents are coming. Prepare now for international recruitment’s new chapter. - David King, University Business

U.S. universities and colleges, however, have chosen to go it alone. Many build international recruitment infrastructure themselves, relying on international travel, admissions staff and direct marketing. This stance is the result of a number of factors: regulatory history, institutional caution, and a belief that their brand strength alone is sufficient. Here’s the thing. Many international students looking to enroll in U.S. institutions already use and rely on education agents. I’ve visited many of our agent partners and I hear them actively recruiting for U.S. universities. They’re helping students navigate the U.S. application process, preparing them for standardized tests, and facilitating enrollments. For U.S. institutions, a failure to collaborate with these agents is both a missed opportunity and a risk. Are the agents able to accurately represent the school?

https://universitybusiness.com/education-agents-are-coming-prepare-now-for-international-recruitments-new-chapter/

The Students Crowdfunding for Tuition - Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed

GoFundMe, the largest crowdfunding site, has seen an over 20 percent increase in fundraisers for tuition and related expenses over the past year, according to data the company shared with Inside Higher Ed. That rise comes as Americans have reckoned with rising costs under the Trump administration and declines in social services like food assistance and Medicaid, leaving many students with less money to put toward their education. The changes to federal student loans have already begun affecting some students and are likely to exacerbate the affordability problem. And though private loans are available, research shows about four in 10 students would not qualify for those loans, and surveys have found that the majority of Americans don’t think taking on debt to pursue higher education is worth it.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/financial-aid/2026/09/28/gofundmes-college-tuition-are-year

Stanford apologizes, saying AI-altered photo that changed student’s gender and race violated policy -Minyvonne Burke, NBC

Stanford University said the use of artificial intelligence to alter the race and appearance of students in a promotional photo violated its policy and was “a serious error in judgment.” The controversy centers on an image of three students posing in front of Star Ginger in the university’s dining hall, according to The Stanford Review, the student-run newspaper, which first reported the story. The original photo shows a female student and two male students holding their plates as they pose for the camera. The altered image shows one of the male students replaced with an AI-generated Black female student. The two other people in the altered image were made to look noticeably slimmer. The Review reported that Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises used the altered image in its advertisements. Its editor in chief, Garret Molloy, said the altered photos were placed on welcome banners around campus.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/stanford-apologizes-saying-ai-altered-pic-changed-students-gender-race-rcna599691

University of Phoenix study finds GenAI use among online adult learners associated with academic performance and technology confidence - University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix scholars have published new peer-reviewed research examining how non-traditional undergraduate students use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in online higher education. The study found that more frequent GenAI use was significantly associated with higher academic performance and stronger confidence in technology skills, while lower confidence in reading, writing and math and greater time demands from work, study or family responsibilities did not significantly predict use.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1145185

When Nontraditional Students Become the Norm - Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed

Adult learners, working students, student parents, transfer students and first-generation students are often grouped under the broad umbrella of “nontraditional” students. While their experiences differ, they also highlight the various ways higher education is, or isn’t, designed around the realities of students’ lives. Many of these students are navigating similar pressures: balancing college with work and family responsibilities, managing financial challenges and figuring out systems that weren’t necessarily built with them in mind. And as these experiences become increasingly common across higher education, they raise a bigger question: If so-called nontraditional students reflect the reality of today’s college population, does it still make sense to call them nontraditional?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2026/09/24/when-nontraditional-students-become-norm

Andreessen Horowitz launches AI school as college alternative - Megan Cerullo, CBS News

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced on Tuesday that it is launching an academy, billed as a college alternative, for aspiring AI and other technology entrepreneurs. The unaccredited program, called the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, will focus its curriculum on teaching people how to build products and services from the ground up using AI. Specifically, the academy will provide instruction geared to subjects such as designing AI systems, fundraising for startups, selling businesses and storytelling. Students won't take tests or be assigned homework but will instead focus on building real projects. Courses will be taught by tech entrepreneurs, with the academy naming OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as either an instructor or guest lecturer. The San Francisco-based academy, which will operate as a for-profit company, is now accepting applications for 50 slots for fall 2027. The program is one year long and tuition-free. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andreessen-horowitz-ai-school-college-alternative/

How to stay smart in the age of AI: the science of critical thinking - Helen Pearson, Nature

Earlier this year, education researcher Lixiang Yan realized that students could outsource all of their work for his university course to artificial intelligence. In praise of human teachers: universities must resist outsourcing everything to AI. Yan, who teaches at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, was using an agentic AI called Codex to set up an online course on a learning-management platform. But it quickly became clear that the adept AI could independently complete all the assignments, answer questions and participate in discussions, “without the learner being intellectually engaged” at all, Yan says. The experience made Yan think that teaching students to reason and think for themselves “is more critical than ever”, he says. And he is hardly alone.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02930-6

Two years of OpenAI Academy - OpenAI

To ensure the benefits of AI are broadly shared, people need the skills and confidence to use it in their everyday lives. Since launching in September 2024, OpenAI Academy has helped people build those skills through practical training for tasks ranging from teaching and running a small business to developing software. Over the past two years, OpenAI Academy has hosted more than 250 events, and more than 4 million people have engaged with Academy content. That work has brought together educators, small business owners, developers, nonprofit leaders and community members to learn, practice, and share what works. For this next chapter, we’re expanding OpenAI Academy through a new trainer program that prepares people and organizations to teach Academy material in their communities. This program builds on our work with partners and will make training and ongoing support available closer to where people live and work.

https://openai.com/index/two-years-of-openai-academy/

U of Kentucky Online recognizes faculty, staff for excellence in online teaching - Lindsey Piercy, UKnow

Three faculty members and four staff members were honored Sept. 16 during the University of Kentucky Online Awards ceremony, which featured the inaugural presentation of the UK Online Teaching Award. Now in its second year, the UKO Advocate recognition expands the UKO Excellence Awards by giving UK Online staff an opportunity to nominate faculty or staff members who work closely with them to support online teaching and learning across the university. The four UKO Excellence Award recipients are staff members nominated by their peers for their contributions to UK Online. Established in 2024, the UKO Excellence Awards provide an opportunity for the unit to celebrate its accomplishments and recognize staff members who contribute to its success.

https://uknow.uky.edu/professional-news/uk-online-recognizes-faculty-staff-excellence-online-teaching