A university that doesn’t attempt to appear like one has a subtle allure. The central building at MBZUAI feels less like a campus and more like a well-coordinated system as you walk through it. People move through it like data packets do over a network, with each task feeding the next with remarkably accurate accuracy. Higher education has had difficulty keeping up with artificial intelligence over the previous 10 years, frequently responding slowly as companies advanced far more quickly. By building the school around AI from the ground up, MBZUAI reversed that trend and let infrastructure, teaching, and research to…
Author: errica
They weren’t kidding when a student once remarked that their dorm was hotter than the library’s servers. The building’s interior temperatures rose above 36°C when central cooling failed during an exceptionally severe August. Nearby stores sold out of fans. Study sessions were held outside. Deadlines were modified by faculty. For the campus facilities crew, that difficult week turned into a turning moment. It made clear what glossy brochures fail to point out: many campuses were not designed for the current climate. College construction served as a status symbol for generations. Imagine sun-drenched atriums, stone colonnades, and concrete quads that are…
AI-driven learning maps, adaptive platforms, and student dashboards are just a few of the amazing technologies available in today’s schools. But take a step back and consider this: Who made the decision that such tools were useful? Who created their design? Who now gets to define what constitutes effective learning? A new cadre of power brokers—intermediaries who sit between technology suppliers, education policymakers, and institutions—is becoming the answer, rather than principals or instructors. They work as procurement experts, data scientists, policy architects, and edtech advisors. Despite their extraordinary importance, they are rarely listed among the professors. Instead of taking center…
It may seem like a strange combination when students in a comparative literature class start running code alongside close readings. However, it’s starting to become the new standard. The Data Science in the Humanities (DASH) program at universities like Washington University in St. Louis is subtly fostering a new generation of intellectuals who combine literary interpretation with computational reasoning. The combination is especially novel because it challenges the notion that narrative and data exist in distinct silos. These programs are greatly broadening students’ analytical horizons by incorporating tools like Python, SQL, and text analysis into English, philosophy, and history studies.…
The concept of leaving college was once stigmatized as being hesitant or unfocused, but today’s gap year entrepreneurs are exhibiting a remarkably similar sense of purpose across accelerators, investor pitch rooms, and campuses, changing the way ambition is gauged before a degree is even earned. For many students, the gap year has become a launchpad rather than a pause button. This is especially helpful for those who view learning as a process of testing concepts under pressure, modifying presumptions, and creating something that either survives contact with reality or fails fast enough to impart important lessons. As initiatives like the…
In the past, the four-year degree operated similarly to a social contract. The economy mostly met you halfway after you showed up, remained the course, and paid attention to the lectures. Although it hasn’t completely crumbled, this arrangement has significantly thinned, leaving many grads with credentials that feel more like IOUs than keys. Today, the environment on practically every school is slightly different. Of course, pride exists, but it is frequently accompanied by calculation. The way investors evaluate portfolios, looking for risk, upside, and viability, is how students evaluate majors. Just that change indicates that something has changed. At least…
A graduate at MIT receives a cryptographic hash in addition to their diploma as they cross the stage. That line of code connects their argument to a publicly accessible ledger that is permanently verified, locked, and signed. It’s not hypothetical. It’s already true. One day, that small, unseen sign might take the place of all transcripts, degrees, and letters of recommendation—all over the world. Blockchain is more than just privacy jargon and decentralization. It serves as a foundation for trust in the educational setting. One that contains student records in an unchangeable, unforgeable format. This dependability is especially helpful for…
Imagine that you have just asked your AI tutor to explain Bayes’ Theorem for the third time at 1:47 a.m., immediately before a statistics midterm. It reacts instantly, without condemnation, sighing, or charging. This is the realization of a dream for thousands of students. These days, chatbots are included into exam preparation apps, integrated into course platforms, and promoted as less expensive substitutes for human tutors. However, even while they excel at providing prompt feedback and well-organized explanations, they frequently fail in the most crucial area—the complex, emotional landscape of learning. Chris Lele has years of experience assisting pupils in…
Seldom do machines intentionally discriminate. When they do, though, it’s typically because someone else did it first. Through signals we didn’t intend to draw attention to and patterns algorithms are fed, bias infiltrates algorithms covertly. That’s where the risk starts. These systems don’t pose queries. They simply pick up knowledge. Additionally, what kids learn—often without realizing it—can have seriously negative effects. For example, Amazon trained a model on previous resumes in an attempt to automate hiring. The objective appeared to be straightforward: expedite hiring and eliminate subjective assessment. However, the system started penalizing resumes that had signs of female identification…
In the past, the query seemed indulgent, even philosophical. Instead of being taught between midterms and finals, emotional intelligence seemed to be something you learned through life. However, in the last ten years, academic institutions have started to view emotional intelligence as a trainable ability rather than an abstract quality, much like how leadership or communication were originally disregarded before becoming required courses. In contrast to idealism, Margaret Andrews, a professor of emotional intelligence in leadership at Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education, frequently presents the problem with pragmatic clarity. She contends that being amiable or soft-spoken is not a sign…