https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/ en https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/what-workforce-pell-grant-launch-means-community-college-it-leaders In 2025, the Workforce Pell Grant was announced as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. On August 4, the first program was approved for the new Workforce Pell Grant, a milestone in higher education. To be eligible, institutions must prove a 70% completion rate and 70% job placement rate — in the industry or field of the program — within 180 days. Programs must also run between eight to 15 weeks in length. “If an institution is starting now, they’re six months too late — minimum,” says Wesley Bange, a chief information and technology officer at Bossier Parish Community College. Meeting… Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:02:54 -0400 Alexandra Shimalla https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/what-workforce-pell-grant-launch-means-community-college-it-leaders https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/ai-and-enrollment-pressures-are-reshaping-higher-education Higher education is at an inflection point. The 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report identifies the forces most likely to reshape teaching and learning over the next decade — and the picture is complex. As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it’s changing relationships across campus. Institutions also continue to face mounting enrollment challenges. And emerging risks related to cybersecurity, policy reform and sustainability are compounding institutional strain.  AI’s Influence on Teaching and Learning According to the report, AI is redefining instructional design and how faculty teach… Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:37:38 -0400 Amy McIntosh https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/ai-and-enrollment-pressures-are-reshaping-higher-education https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/virtual-tech-tools-fuel-higher-ed-robotics-research The percentage of physical robots in industrial settings that are designed to work alongside humans has more than quadrupled since 2017, according to data from the nonprofit International Federation of Robotics. To investigate how collaborative robots can effectively communicate with people in manufacturing, medical and other settings, a number of colleges and universities have launched research efforts that involve virtual reality (VR), which may also help provide students with valuable workplace skills and experience. Vision-based training can be a powerful way to tap into the speed,… Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:43:58 -0400 Erin Brereton https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/virtual-tech-tools-fuel-higher-ed-robotics-research https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/centralized-cybersecurity-operations-keeps-community-colleges-protected As the largest single-district community college system in the nation, Maricopa Community Colleges educates more Arizona residents than its three large public universities combined.  The system operates 10 main campuses across the Phoenix metropolitan area and more than 30 satellite sites, serving nearly 100,000 students and employing 14,000 faculty members and staff in the 2026 spring semester.  Those superlatives and numbers are all familiar to Jamie Spradlin, MCC’s CISO. When he took his position in June 2024, his first order of business was to establish a cybersecurity program… Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:02:25 -0400 Chris Hayhurst https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/centralized-cybersecurity-operations-keeps-community-colleges-protected https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/how-universities-are-turning-their-connected-campuses-smart-cities A university is a small city in itself: There’s lighting, waste management, traffic control. That means, when researchers look to optimize a campus, they can simultaneously build a “smart cities” proof of concept for a municipality. It’s a logical fit. “Universities are often at the cutting edge of technology. What they lack is a city use case,” says Chris Lucero, technology and design director for The Connective, a smart city consortium for the greater Phoenix region. Cities meanwhile “have resource constraints and budget issues but would like to pilot new technologies to solve municipal… Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:36:14 -0400 Adam Stone https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/how-universities-are-turning-their-connected-campuses-smart-cities https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/ai-enabled-ghost-student-fraud-how-it-leaders-are-fighting-back-perfcon First, there was the zombie college scam. Now it’s “ghost students,” bad actors leveraging artificial intelligence to create fake identities and enroll imaginary students to scoop up grants and loans.  AI tools now allow synthetic identities to mimic genuine student behavior long enough to collect financial aid disbursements, and traditional enrollment systems are falling short. The schemes are costing the U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in siphoned-off federal financial aid packages. What Are Ghost Students, and How Is AI Making Fraud Worse? Ghost students are “fake or… Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:04:11 -0400 Adam Stone https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/ai-enabled-ghost-student-fraud-how-it-leaders-are-fighting-back-perfcon https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/higher-ed-it-budgets-face-dual-threat-federal-research-cuts-and-state-funding-pressure-perfcon Higher education leadership and IT teams are battling ghost students, establishing AI governance and managing competing priorities as students return to campus. Adding to this strain is a major shift in federal philosophy about National Institutes of Health grants, National Science Foundation funding and broader federal research funding cuts in what has historically been a university-centric system.  In previous years, Congress has approved the federal budget, so that agencies such as NIH, NSF and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science could move swiftly to release funding… Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:50:45 -0400 Akeya Dickson https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/higher-ed-it-budgets-face-dual-threat-federal-research-cuts-and-state-funding-pressure-perfcon https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/why-higher-ed-it-cant-afford-wait-quantum-security Sometimes, dealing with cybersecurity can feel like the boardwalk arcade game Whac-A-Mole. Just when you’ve addressed a potential threat with hardware, software and operating system patches, another threat comes from a direction you never anticipated. A new threat to many organizations’ cybersecurity is looming, and it could be the biggest one of all: quantum computing. The good news is that universities and other organizations can take steps now to protect their systems that might be vulnerable in a few years. Quantum computing, where processors use the principles of quantum physics, is… Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:20:16 -0400 Joel Keller https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/why-higher-ed-it-cant-afford-wait-quantum-security https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/qa-texas-tech-cio-joins-statewide-quantum-committee Artificial intelligence dominates the headlines, but quantum computing isn’t far behind. That’s especially true in Texas, where Texas Tech University CIO, Vice President for IT and Executive Director of AI and Quantum Computing Lin Zhou was recently appointed by the governor to the state’s Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. The committee will guide the new Texas Quantum Initiative, which aims to make Texas a national and global leader in the field.  The committee is a perfect fit for Zhou, who started his career as a physicist and spent many years leading AI initiatives at IBM. He’s… Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:45:12 -0400 Amy Burroughs https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/qa-texas-tech-cio-joins-statewide-quantum-committee https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/campus-network-infrastructure-student-experience The signals are undeniable: Modernized campus network infrastructure is now the central nervous system of a competitive higher education institution. When the network stumbles, the institution feels it everywhere. That’s the shift we want more campus leaders to sit with. We used to think of digital infrastructure as more of a back-office concern. It isn’t anymore. The network, the security posture and the classroom technology now shape the student experience, influence enrollment and increasingly determine how competitive an institution can be over the long term. Click the banner below for… Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:45:03 -0400 Michael Durand https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/08/campus-network-infrastructure-student-experience