Higher Education & Research

Natick, Mass. – September 17, 2026 -- Franklin Pierce University has partnered with Uwill to expand mental health and wellness support for its graduate students, granting them unlimited access to licensed counselors through Uwill's teletherapy matching platform.

Nearly 40% of graduate students report anxiety or depression symptoms, six times the general population rate

The partnership responds to survey data showing 90% of adults believe the U.S. faces a mental health crisis, with graduate students facing disproportionately high rates of psychological distress tied to academic, career and family pressures.

Baltimore – September 16, 2026 -- Morgan State University has secured high-performance GPU compute resources through a new collaboration with Google Public Sector, aiming to reach Carnegie R1 research classification and establish a national blueprint for HBCU digital transformation.

Google's Program for Accelerated Research grants Morgan State advanced GPU infrastructure

The partnership, formed through Google Public Sector's Program for Accelerated Research (GPAR), gives Morgan State faculty and students access to high-performance computing for work in AI, cybersecurity, climate science and health sciences. The university is targeting Carnegie R1 status, the top classification for "very high research activity," which would unlock additional federal funding and attract research talent.

Portland, Ore. – September 16, 2026 -- Material wealth was cited in fewer than 10 percent of conversations about prosperity in five of six countries surveyed, according to a new report from Prosper Global, formerly Mercy Corps.

Research spans 1,100 people across six conflict- and climate-affected nations

The report, titled "What It Means to Prosper," draws on 396 individual and group conversations with more than 1,100 people in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Indonesia, Kenya, Syria, and Ukraine. Rather than impose a definition, researchers asked participants to describe prosperity and its barriers in their own words.

Moscow – – September 16, 2026 -- Zhejiang Media Group signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Higher School of Television at Lomonosov Moscow State University on September 16, 2026, formalizing a media partnership tied to the "Liangzhu: A Dialogue across World Civilizations" cultural exchange event held on the Moscow campus.

Zhejiang University donates rare painting collection to Russian institution

Zhejiang University presented a Comprehensive Collection of Ancient Chinese Paintings to Lomonosov Moscow State University during the opening ceremony, part of a broader exchange involving hundreds of representatives from Chinese and Russian cultural, educational, and media organizations.

Hangzhou – September 16, 2026 -- Hikvision has partnered with AV Magazine to release a white paper outlining how AI-powered interactive flat panel displays (IFPDs) and cloud collaboration platforms can restructure the entire teaching lifecycle, from lesson planning to post-class analytics.

AI cuts lesson prep time by automating content creation before class

The white paper details how Hikvision's WonderHub Class cloud platform generates structured lesson outlines, sources multimedia resources, and builds interactive quizzes and games from simple text prompts, shifting lesson preparation from a manual task to an automated workflow.

Benghazi – September 15, 2026 -- The University of Benghazi reopened all its faculties and facilities on September 4, 2026, after an 11-year closure caused by war damage, following a reconstruction project led by the Libyan Fund for Development and Reconstruction.

Reconstruction took three years to rebuild an integrated university campus

The project, personally overseen by Fund Director-General engineer Belqasim Khalifa Haftar, restored the faculties of engineering, arts, law, science and languages, along with the central library, administrative buildings, laboratories, service facilities, student housing and internal infrastructure.

University serves nearly 100,000 students as one of Libya's oldest institutions

Known as the "Mother of Libyan Universities," the institution has provided free education for decades, training generations of scientists, academics, experts and officials who helped build Libya's state institutions.

Salt Lake City – September 15, 2026 -- Instructure has partnered with identity verification provider Veriff to build identity checks directly into Parchment by Instructure Transcript Services, targeting fraud that has cost U.S. community colleges $180 million in a single year through so-called "ghost student" schemes.

Parchment network spans 6,200 colleges and 6,700 K-12 schools

Parchment operates the largest academic credential network in the world, connecting more than 6,200 colleges and universities with 6,700 K-12 schools and districts, and has exchanged over 165 million credentials to date. The new verification layer places identity checks at the point of credential issuance, inside the same network institutions already use to send transcripts.

Boston – September 15, 2026 -- Encoura has published a new analysis showing that academic fields outside higher education's most popular majors are drawing sustained student interest but lack the outcomes visibility needed to compete for enrollment. The Eduventures Admitted Student 2026 Trend Report, titled "Beyond the Big Five: Exploring Majors Outside the Mainstream," draws on more than 42,000 responses collected over three years through Eduventures Admitted Student Research.

Report identifies a 'Next Five' tier of academic fields trailing the dominant majors

The study defines the "Big Five" fields — Biology, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, and Health Professions — as benefiting from clear career pathways and employer pipelines. It identifies a "Next Five" tier — Visual and Performing Arts, Psychology, Education, Social Sciences, and Physical Sciences — as the next most significant area of admitted-student interest.

Benghazi -- The University of Benghazi resumed full operations on September 13, 2026, after an 11-year closure caused by war damage, following a three-year reconstruction led by the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund under Director General Belqasim Khalifa Haftar.

Reconstruction rebuilds an integrated university city in three years

The project restored the Faculties of Engineering, Humanities, Law, Science and Languages, along with the central library, teaching and administrative buildings, laboratories, utility facilities, student dormitories, internal roads and supporting infrastructure. The University of Benghazi, known as the "Mother of Libyan Universities," serves nearly 100,000 students and had been shuttered since sustaining extensive destruction during the Libyan armed forces' conflict with terrorist groups.

Melbourne, Australia – September 13, 2026 -- UNSW Sydney has selected D2L Brightspace as its new institution-wide learning platform, a multi-year deal set to reach more than 80,000 learners and thousands of educators.

UNSW ranks #19 globally in the 2027 QS World University Rankings and taps D2L for full-scale digital overhaul

UNSW, Australia's top-ranked university and a member of the Group of Eight, will deploy D2L Brightspace as the foundation of a redesigned digital learning environment covering both on-campus and flexible learning pathways.

Rollout bundles four D2L products, including AI tools Lumi Chat, Lumi Tutor and Lumi Feedback

The deployment spans D2L Brightspace, the Creator+ content tool with more than 50 H5P interactive content types, the Lumi suite of AI-driven tutoring and feedback tools, and the Performance+ analytics dashboard for tracking learner engagement and retention.