ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Just after 1 a.m. on a recent Friday morning, James DeVaney, the Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation at the University of Michigan, returned to Ann Arbor from the QS Back to School Summit in New York. The transition from the high-level discussions in Manhattan to the practical applications in Michigan served as a microcosm of the current state of higher education: a field caught between identifying a massive systemic problem and racing to implement a viable solution.
For three days in New York, a cohort of university leaders, workforce development experts, and global investors had returned repeatedly to a common concern and a shared imperative for the artificial intelligence era. The consensus was clear: higher education needs to do more throughout the undergraduate experience to prepare students for work. This preparation is no longer just about securing a first job; it is about equipping students to enter a lifetime of learning and continuous adaptation in a landscape where the ground is constantly shifting.
A few hours after his return, DeVaney walked into the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation. There, the theoretical challenges discussed in New York were being met with a concrete response. He welcomed a diverse group of students, faculty, and professionals from some of the world’s leading technology and industrial firms, including Epic Games, Rivian, Volkswagen Group Technologies, Ford, General Motors, Bombardier, and Omnicom.
“In New York, we spent three days talking about the problem,” DeVaney noted. “In Ann Arbor, I saw one version of the solution taking shape.”
While a single immersive industry day cannot resolve the massive challenges facing higher education, it provides the building blocks of a new model. In this emerging paradigm, career preparation is woven into the undergraduate experience, and industry serves as a partner in education rather than simply a destination after graduation.
A New Test of Value
A central message from the QS Summit was that the college degree must increasingly prove its value. As students and families pay closer attention to outcomes, affordability, and opportunity, the question has become more direct: what does an undergraduate education enable someone to do next?
This question, DeVaney argues, deserves a thoughtful and multifaceted answer. The value of higher education cannot be reduced to a starting salary, a single employment outcome, or the immediate needs of a specific employer. Universities bear broader responsibilities, including helping students develop intellectual depth, leading lives of meaning, advancing knowledge, and cultivating informed citizens.
However, DeVaney warns that institutions must not hide behind the breadth of that mission to avoid difficult questions about how education expands opportunity. Students deserve to emerge from college with more than a transcript and a credential. Universities owe students opportunities to develop capabilities they can apply, produce evidence of their skills, and build the confidence to continue learning as the world changes around them.
This shift is particularly vital because career readiness is no longer a one-time achievement. With technologies evolving and industries reorganizing, entire categories of work are being automated or newly created. Preparing someone for a first job is necessary, but no longer sufficient. The deeper responsibility is to cultivate "continuous readiness"—the ability to keep learning and creating opportunity throughout a multi-decade career.
Anxiety Without Fatalism
As the labor market shifts, many students express growing anxiety about their prospects. Headlines regarding AI eliminating early-career jobs and employers reducing entry-level hiring have led many to doubt whether the opportunities they expected will exist upon graduation.
While these concerns are legitimate, DeVaney suggests the responsibility of the university is neither to dismiss this anxiety nor to amplify it into fatalism. While the labor market is changing and universities need to respond with urgency, students do not need to wait for institutions to fully evolve. They have more ways than ever to engage with authentic problems, learn professional tools, and build portfolios that make their emerging capabilities visible.
The core message to students is that career readiness cannot wait until graduation. Fortunately, the tools to build that readiness are already becoming available within the university ecosystem.
