https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-aiAI is reshaping the workforce at pace. McKinsey’s 2025 research demonstrates organisations are redesigning roles as AI moves from pilot to strategy. Yet most remain early in adoption; and workforce impacts are still uncertain. For UK higher education, the more urgent question is not institutional efficiency, but graduate readiness. As AI transforms professions, how must universities evolve curricula to ensure students leave with the digital, data and AI capabilities required for an AI-enabled economy? This session explores how institutions can move beyond isolated modules towards embedding AI and digital fluency across disciplines.

With growing pressures on student retention, universities must make full use of the data at their fingertips. This workshop will examine what data is most useful and how these metrics can highlight what is, and isn’t, working in current support strategies to drive engagement, ensure retention and secure outcomes. A key focus will be on empowering staff to confidently utilise data in their roles, creating a culture where insight drives action. How can institutions data to identify students at risk and intervene before issues escalate with personalised support? 

UK universities are facing an urgent need to reinforce and diversify their international strategies. While internationalisation has long underpinned financial sustainability, the sector must now look beyond purely financial goals to achieve a more balanced approach. A year on from the 2025 Immigration White Paper, institutions are navigating intensified global competition, growing domestic scepticism towards migration, and the potential for further government reforms aimed at ‘fixing’ immigration. Against this backdrop, the session will explore how universities can remain agile and authentically welcoming to international students while preparing for continued policy volatility.