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U.S. civil rights enforcement shifts as Education offloads special education and OCR oversight
The U.S. Department of Education began moving core special education and civil rights functions to other federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the...
Congressional/administrative policy reshapes K-12 accountability and funding waivers
Indiana received the broadest state waiver yet allowing it to adjust how school performance is rated under federal accountability rules and to gain more flexibility in how certain federal...
Dozens of colleges face Canvas breach risk after ShinyHunters-linked activity
Cybersecurity researchers and partners tied to Google Threat Intelligence and Mandiant report that the ShinyHunters cybercrime group may have accessed sensitive systems at dozens of colleges, with...
Federal AI export controls collide with frontier-model access; universities feel the downstream impact
The U.S. government’s decision to impose export controls that effectively shut down access to Anthropic’s frontier AI models, Fable and Mythos, has triggered uncertainty across AI ecosystems tied...
Admissions and testing: Columbia reinstates SAT/ACT for 2027–28 cycle, reversing test-optional stance
Columbia University will require SAT or ACT scores for undergraduate applicants beginning for the 2027–28 admissions cycle, after updating application guidance in June. The university said a...
Leadership change at top research university: Penn president Larry Jameson to exit next year
University of Pennsylvania President Larry Jameson announced he will step down next summer, ending a tenure that began as interim leadership in 2023 and continued after Penn removed the “interim”...
Institutional consolidation: St. John’s College combines presidents amid cost pressure and enrollment concerns
St. John’s College moved to consolidate leadership across its Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico campuses, after its governing board voted to roll the separate campus presidencies into...
Academic workforce and finance pressure: layoff warnings spread across large U.S. urban districts
Thousands of employees in U.S. public-school districts received layoff warnings as districts face mounting financial pressure tied to sinking enrollment, rising labor and material costs, and...
Higher ed AI and data governance push gains momentum; ‘data readiness’ reframed as AI readiness
A new higher education technology briefing reframed institutional AI readiness around one operational prerequisite: data readiness. The piece argues that campuses must treat AI readiness as a data...
AI-driven workforce decisions: Goldman finds students redirect majors away from high-displacement fields
Goldman Sachs analysis suggests college students are already changing major choices in response to AI-driven labor disruption. The report found enrollment declines of more than 10% in computer...
AI model access controls reshape higher-ed AI adoption and research security
The U.S. Commerce Department’s export controls forced Anthropic to take its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models offline for users outside the U.S., cutting off global access to advanced frontier AI....
Campus data-center buildout becomes a competitive hiring and research capacity bottleneck
A new industry narrative is emerging in research universities: AI-era computing capacity is increasingly treated like core infrastructure that determines who can recruit and retain machine...
Cybersecurity breach risk expands to higher-ed enterprise systems
A higher education cybersecurity warning highlights how the Canvas hacking campaign may now be extending beyond learning platforms into core enterprise software. Reporting cited Google Threat...
US higher-ed leadership transitions amid compliance and political scrutiny
Penn President Larry Jameson announced he will step down next summer, setting up a presidential search under the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees. The leadership change follows a...
Admissions policy pivots: standardized tests return at Columbia
Columbia University will reinstate SAT or ACT requirements for undergraduate applicants beginning in 2027 after a multiyear faculty review concluded test scores are a useful indicator of potential...
State-mandated restructuring of a public HBCU
Kentucky State University moved closer to implementing a state-mandated overhaul that would shrink and restructure the university’s academic portfolio. The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary...
Bard leadership transition following long-running institutional disruption
Bard College named Jonathan Becker, executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs, as acting president effective July 1. The Board of Trustees said Becker will chair a newly...
Student success and institutional efficiency: scholarship and application tooling adds AI advising
Common App added an AI advising tool in partnership with College Possible, aiming to help applicants navigate deadlines and enrollment steps more effectively. The initiative is designed to reduce...
Cybersecurity and governance pressures reshape higher-ed AI rollout priorities
The AI “agentic systems” discussion emphasized that institutions adopting AI agents should be prepared for verification, accountability, and regulator-ready traceability. Multiple executives...
Student mental health and learning design: colleges and schools confront tech’s mixed effects
A new survey reported that educators see technology use in schools as delivering academic engagement while simultaneously raising concerns about social-emotional development and mental health. In...