In the next couple of weeks, I’ll explain why we’ve historically tried (and failed) to measure learning and the importance of doing so now. Provide my early, and undoubtedly imperfect, ideas about how we might do that. And, importantly, distinguish what I’m envisioning from the accreditation- and accountability-driven “assessment” that a lot of you (not wrongly) view as the devil. Today’s column offers my best attempt to explain how we ended up here: lacking, as I argued previously, “tangible, direct and incontrovertible proof that colleges and universities actually help learners develop the capabilities, skills and habits of mind that the institutions purport to deliver.”
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Wednesday, September 23, 2026
IRS tax plan could imperil college finances, Moody’s says - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive
The Trump administration’s recent proposal to revoke the tax-exempt status of private nonprofit colleges over their diversity efforts could bring steep financial consequences for institutions, according to a report out this week from Moody’s Ratings. Analysts with the ratings agency said widespread loss of tax status was “unlikely,” on the assumption that most institutions would probably try to comply with the proposed rules. However, even compliance could raise their legal costs and other expenses. If colleges did lose status, the main revenue hit would be on fundraising as donors would no longer be able to make tax-exempt gifts, the analysts said. Additionally, losing the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds would be “substantially negative” for institutions, they added.
Cultivating Student Resilience: Practical Strategies for Well-Being - Lee Lipton, Faculty Focus
The introduction of self-regulation and stress-management strategies into higher education curricula has recently come into focus as a necessary component of promoting resilience and preventing future professional burnout (Hsu & Goldsmith, 2021; Egan et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2025). In addition to enhancing academic performance, evidence-based regulation strategies could help mitigate the effects of the high-stakes, high-stress environment inherent in college and post-graduate education (Chongjin et al., 2025), and learned self-regulation skills may carry over into the professional environment after graduation (Emerson et al., 2023). Integrating short, reflective activities and simple self-regulation practices into established curricula may be an effective strategy for providing students with helpful and actionable means to foster self-awareness and well-being (Egan et al., 2021; Gilani, 2025). This article aims to discuss how stress management can be a tool for building resilience and promoting deep learning, outline several practical approaches that educators can use to weave self-care into existing curricula, and introduce several strategies to foster students’ self-exploration and awareness.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Rutgers Law School Launches Online J.D. Program, Expanding Access to a Rutgers Legal Education Nationwide - Rutgers
Beginning in 2027, Rutgers Law School will offer a new answer to those questions. The school is launching an Online J.D. program that combines live online classes, flexible coursework, and periodic in-person learning experiences, creating a pathway for students who want to earn a law degree while balancing careers, caregiving responsibilities, military service, community commitments, or other personal obligations. The program places Rutgers Law among a select group of American Bar Association-accredited law schools nationwide offering an online J.D. option and builds on Rutgers' longstanding commitment to expanding access to higher education. "Rutgers has a longstanding commitment to expanding educational opportunity and serving the public good," said Dennis J. Shields, interim chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden. "The Online J.D. program extends that mission, allowing more students to earn a rigorous Rutgers legal education and prepare for the next step in their professional journey."
Rebuilding Higher Education’s Capacity to Respond - Emily Donnelli Sallee, Evolllution
Academic agility shifts the conversation to an institution’s core mission of teaching and learning and frames financial sustainability as the outcome, rather than the objective, of a well-functioning higher education organization. When institutions get academic agility right, it becomes second nature. Academic agility allows institutions to continue evolving our missions and educational models to meet the needs of learners, the workforce and the communities of which we are a part.
Moving Beyond the Trend Line in Continuing Education - Derek Tannis, Evolllution
Continuing education leaders now depend on forecasting more than ever. Formerly reliable indicators point in different directions. Once financial, operational and learner realities intersect, stable trends become harder to read. Enrollment may hold steady while margins tighten. Labor market demand may rise while staffing capacity weakens. A program may meet familiar success measures yet become harder to sustain. In these moments, the trend line cannot speak for itself. Leaders and practitioners must interpret competing evidence and decide what to do next. Forecasting asks what may happen if current patterns continue. Planning asks how an institution will respond: where to invest, what to pause, what to revise and which trade-offs to accept. In continuing education, learner demand, revenue models, labor market indicators and institutional capacity rarely move together. Acknowledging that uncertainty helps leaders forecast with discipline while still making critical planning decisions.
Monday, September 21, 2026
Students re-imagine AI through Hastings Initiative - Emma Landry, Bowdoin Orient
The Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity, a $50 million initiative funded by Bowdoin alumnus and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, emerged with an ambitious mission: “exploring, understanding and ethically guiding the transformative power of artificial intelligence.” The initiative’s priorities include hiring ten new faculty members across academic disciplines, funding faculty research and supporting teaching and artistic projects involving artificial intelligence (AI). In recent months, funding has also become more available to students, expanding opportunities for them to engage directly with the developing technologies. The Hastings Initiative is particularly relevant within Bowdoin’s growing research culture, with more than 200 students conducting faculty-mentored research annually. In 2025, the College was officially recognized as a Research College and University (RCU)—a notable distinction for a liberal arts college.
NC State Receives $20 Million Grant to Develop New AI-Enabled Learning Technologies - Matt Shipman, North Carolina State
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded North Carolina State University a five-year, $20 million grant to support research on artificial intelligence (AI) tools that can generate interactive narratives effective at engaging K-12 students and improving learning. The grant is a renewal of a previous five-year, $20 million award that established the NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI) at NC State. “This grant reflects the strength of NC State’s research in artificial intelligence and education,” says Jim Pfaendtner, executive vice chancellor and provost of NC State. “Our researchers and partners are taking on a real-world challenge: how to use new technology to help teachers create better learning experiences for students. That is exactly the kind of impactful, collaborative research a land-grant university should lead.” The EngageAI Institute draws on the expertise of AI and education researchers at NC State, Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Indiana University, and the nonprofit organization Digital Promise.
As an academic scientist in the U.S., I’m learning to live with uncertainty - Violeta J. Rodriguez, Science
I reread the email I had drafted to my department chair one last time. Then I read it again, and finally clicked “send.” The message itself was short: I wanted to pursue tenure 3 years ahead of the usual timeline. A changing political and funding landscape had made the future of my health equity research feel increasingly vulnerable, and I hoped tenure would help protect the work I had spent years building. I had agonized over the decision for months. What if my record wasn’t strong enough yet, and I was shooting myself in the foot by applying early? But supportive mentors and continued news of funding shake-ups convinced me to go ahead, and my chair responded quickly and positively to my email. Yet I still found myself searching for reassurance that I had made the right decision.
Friday, September 18, 2026
University of North Texas to Open College of AI, Analytics - Milla Surjadi, The Dallas Morning News
The University of North Texas will establish a college of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics after receiving a $20 million gift, it announced Tuesday. The philanthropic investment comes from Vikas Sinha, a UNT alumnus and vice president of the mainframe software division at Broadcom, a semiconductor and infrastructure manufacturer, and his wife, Anuradha. As UNT looks to strengthen its artificial intelligence education, the new college will help advance research and better prepare students for a changing workforce, university officials said in a release.
University of Utah could cut up to 15% of staff ahead of future enrollment drops - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive
University of Utah leaders plan to slash staff positions by 5% to 15% over the next year as the institution faces what it described as “some of the most significant challenges in its 176-year history.” The staff eliminations would amount to between 250 and 855 jobs, cuts that could include layoffs as well as attrition and retirements, according to a Tuesday news release. Reductions won’t apply evenly across units, according to the university’s chief financial officer. Leaders hope to free up resources to reinvest in the institution, which could include “more faculty positions, increased faculty salaries, more research support, and continued development of a more fully residential campus,” the university said.
Business, government and education leaders try to reinvent college from scratch - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report
Called the Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — the project will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away the frills, distractions and layers of bureaucracy that make college in America so expensive. “It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president. Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is the timing. Other colleges and universities are closing or at risk of closing. In Vermont alone, seven private colleges have shut down in the last 10 years. But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering, said this “moment of mass extinction” makes it clearer than ever that “we need new models in higher ed.”
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Columbia and JED partner on teen mental health safeguards for AI - ETIH
Columbia University’s Technology & Democracy Initiative and The Jed Foundation have formed a partnership focused on how AI systems respond to teenagers experiencing emotional distress or suicidal thoughts. The project brings together AI safety specialists and mental health and suicide prevention experts, two groups the partners say increasingly work on the same problems but still lack a common framework for translating clinical knowledge into technical system design. Its first phase will include an expert roundtable followed by a jointly authored working paper. The partners intend the paper to provide a practical foundation for AI developers, mental health specialists, policymakers and platform safety teams working on youth mental health. The focus extends beyond the response a chatbot gives after a student or young person discloses distress. The project will examine how expert judgment can be incorporated throughout an AI system, including the policies governing it, how the technology recognizes that someone may be struggling and how it connects users with support.
More than half of colleges show signs of money problems. Students will suffer the consequences: Many schools will resort to laying off faculty, cutting services and increasing prices - Marina Villeneuve, Hechinger Report
Higher education has faced fiscal headwinds in recent years as hundreds of institutions grapple with declining enrollment because of demographic trends and growing public skepticism about the value of a college degree. Trump policies targeting international students and cutting federal research funding made the financial situation more dire, as have new caps to graduate student loan borrowing and threats to block undergraduate programs from accepting federal financial aid unless alumni earn more than a typical high school graduate. While just a small fraction of colleges will end up closing, those that survive may resort to cutting programs and staff, a move that could balance the books but leave students adrift. Experts and students themselves say it’s time to pay more attention to the impact of college downsizing.
Post-Pandemic, Online Ed Has ‘Staying Power’ - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed
New federal data shows that about 53 percent of college students have taken an online course since 2022, compared to 36 percent in 2019. New federal data shows that about 53 percent of college students have taken an online course since 2022, compared to 36 percent in 2019. The surge in online enrollment forced by the pandemic is leveling out. And the modality is now far more popular than it ever was during the 2010s, according to newly released federal data. The Education Department published fall 2024 online enrollment data last month, covering more 5,615 institutions. The data shows nearly 54 percent of college students were taking at least some distance education courses during the fall of 2024, compared to about 53 percent in 2022 and 2023. Although online enrollment in 2024 was nowhere near as high as it was during the height of the pandemic—73.4 percent of college students took classes online in 2020—it’s still much higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, just 36 percent of students were enrolled in some online courses.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Big School Districts Pause AI Access at School - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Readers of this column know that I generally constrain topics to higher education, however, the practices of school districts impact colleges and universities. When school boards decide to take a step backward by removing effective educational and research tools that students and teachers may use, students are the ones who suffer. Yet, in recent weeks, the nation’s largest public school district, the School District of the City of New York, and the second largest public school district, the Los Angeles Unified School District, have announced plans to drastically suppress the use of AI in their classrooms. It is clear that higher education must take a leadership role in informing and educating educators of the benefits that AI can provide in earlier grade levels. Through continuing and professional education for school board members, administrators and K-12 teachers, we can raise the awareness of productive practices and policies.
Online university draws students with flexibility and training programs - NISHINIPPON SHIMBUN, Japan Times
Distance-learning universities in Japan, once largely seen as places where working adults could pursue higher education and broaden their knowledge, are increasingly becoming an option for students fresh out of high school. A striking example is Zen University, an online university opened by nonprofit Nippon Foundation and education company Dwango in April 2025. Over 4,000 students enrolled in its inaugural year, with fresh high school graduates accounting for more than half of the intake. At Zen University, which is based in Kanagawa Prefecture, all classes are offered online, through which students can earn the required academic credits. As students can attend classes without being tied to a particular place or time, they can gain work experience or engage in other activities on weekdays.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/07/japan/japan-online-universities-high-school-sudents/
AI can help universities keep pace with jobs market demand - Antoine Casanova-Mazet, University World News
Universities have always promised to prepare students for the world beyond graduation. The challenge today is that this world is changing faster than traditional curriculum processes were designed to handle. In many institutions, employability alignment still relies on periodic programme reviews, advisory boards, employer roundtables, graduate surveys and informal industry conversations. These mechanisms remain valuable. But they are episodic. By the time evidence is gathered, interpreted, approved and translated into learning outcomes or assessments, the labour market may already have shifted.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Penn State joins national initiative to strengthen manufacturing workforce - Penn State
Penn State is among eight universities selected to join a national initiative focused on preparing the future generation of workers to advance American manufacturing. The program is a collaborative partnership between higher education, industry and government to prepare the workforce for the future of manufacturing President Neeli Bendapudi joined colleagues and government officials for the launch, where she participated in a panel discussion with Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University; Douglas Girod, chancellor of University of Kansas; and Ann Fairchild, president and CEO of Siemens USA, highlighting how higher education can be a catalyst for preparing the future workforce.
The human skills at a premium in the age of AI - McKinsey
As AI takes rote tasks off employees’ plates, the work that remains can require greater judgment and critical thinking—and be more cognitively demanding. “The rise of AI doesn’t mean we all suddenly delegate our responsibilities for quality control and critical thinking,” says Kate Smaje, McKinsey senior partner and global leader of technology and AI, in a recent episode of McKinsey Talks Talent. “There’s a premium on those capabilities now.” Smaje, coauthor of the recent book Rewired, joins Senior Partner Brooke Weddle and Partner Bryan Hancock to explore what it takes to manage a workforce of people and AI agents—from reimagining roles and workflows to managing the performance of digital workers.
How CEOs are leading through the AI shift - McKinsey
Across industries, AI is changing how companies operate, make decisions, and grow. Through a series of podcast conversations, Senior Partner Eric Kutcher talks with CEOs about how they are navigating that shift and connecting AI to the broader priorities of their businesses. At Invesco, President and CEO Andrew Schlossberg is taking both a top-down and bottom-up approach to AI. The company has put the tools in every employee’s hands, allowing ideas to emerge from people rethinking how they work. The leadership challenge is finding the right balance. “You have to resist the urge to make it completely top down and controlled,” Schlossberg says, “and also resist the urge to make it completely bottom up and entrepreneurial.”
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