If everything goes according to Sal Khan’s plan, within the next year or two students will be able to earn an artificial intelligence–focused degree far faster and cheaper than they can at traditional colleges and universities.
Last week, Khan—whose 18-year-old nonprofit Khan Academy offers free online learning resources for students and teachers—announced a new venture: the Khan TED Institute, a self-described “new approach to higher education designed for a changing world.” KTI is a collaborative endeavor between Khan Academy and two other nonprofits well-known to the education sector—Educational Testing Service and TED—as well as several corporate “thought partners,” including Google, Microsoft, Accenture, Bain, McKinsey and Replit.
“For a long time, access to a high-quality education has been constrained by cost and time,” Khan said in a news release. “We’re exploring what it looks like to flip that—to focus on what you can actually demonstrate while keeping the bar high and the door open to many more people.”
But some observers are already skeptical that a KTI degree—which could take years to become accredited—will add much value to students seeking security in a volatile job market.
Sofia Fenichell, CEO and founder of the assessment tool Study Hall AI, referred to KTI as “the McDonald’s of higher education” in a blog post last week.
“Value in education is migrating in two directions,” she wrote. “Up, toward genuinely elite human mentorship,” and “down, toward AI deeply embedded in cognitive tasks.” In the middle is “more than free content” but “less than real education,” and that’s “exactly where value is being hollowed out. The Khan TED Institute sits in the middle.”
Although the Khan TED Institute—which is in the process of seeking accreditation—is still in development and won’t be accepting applications for another 12 to 18 months, it’s already decided on some specifics that differentiate it from most degree programs. According to its website, the institute is designing all of its programs to cost less than $10,000 total and to use skills-based competencies to measure success, so that students “move forward by mastering skills, not by just logging class credits,” and “motivated learners can complete the program faster.”
KTI’s announcement has also promised programs that will build “strong foundations in subjects like math, science, economics, and writing while also learning how to use AI to solve real problems” that aren’t “just about preparing for jobs,” but “about helping people engage with ideas and contribute meaningfully to their communities and the wider world.”
But “if the content is Khan videos plus TED talks plus competency tests, it will be replicated for free within 18 months,” Fenichell wrote, predicting that “the market will kill the price” of a KTI degree, no matter how inexpensive.
Market Acceptance
The inception of KTI aims to address two of the most pressing issues higher education institutions are grappling with right now: widespread public perception that college isn’t worth the cost and anxiety about how AI is changing the job market. While industry experts are waiting to see how KTI’s ambitious vision plays out, several told Inside Higher Ed that starting up a new degree-granting institution—especially before gaining accreditation—in an already crowded market may not be so simple.
“Seeking accreditation is really important for this program because that’s a signal of validity and quality in the marketplace,” said Stacy Chiaramonte, director of the Center for Research and Strategy and chief research officer at UPCEA, the online and professional education association. “But acceptance in the market will also depend on workforce signals, because students have a lot of choices.”
And when it opens, the Khan TED Institute will be among a growing number of already-accredited colleges and universities that have recently launched AI-focused degree programs, including Carnegie Mellon, Arizona State and Mississippi State Universities. While Chiaramonte said she was surprised that the Khan TED Institute is trying to move in on bachelor’s degree territory—instead of the booming, easier–to–start up microcredential market—she believes it can work so long as it carves out its niche.
“They’re starting from a solid foundation with Khan Academy’s affiliation and they could do really great work. There is demand,” she said. “It’s just going to come down to what is their specific lane and who is this learner that wants this degree? What is their persona? If they’re just throwing another degree in the ring without clearly defining that person and meeting some specific workforce need, they’ll be subject to the same competition as all the other programs.”
In a recorded video message unveiling KTI’s vision, Khan suggested the forthcoming online learning platform could be a good fit for a wide range of learners, including workers who are looking to reskill or upskill by earning a second bachelor’s degree, current college students who want to supplement their education with a second degree, and people who may not have the time or money to pursue a traditional bachelor’s degree.
Although it could take years to gain the backing of an accreditor, Khan said that KTI is already building the market value of its degrees by gathering input from its corporate “thought partners.”
Those partnerships are designed “to make sure that the programs are not made in a vacuum [apart] from what industry cares about most,” Khan said in the video. “We hope to work with them to learn the skills they want to see developed, the signals they care about and get their feedback on the programs we’re developing and constantly iterate on so it’s as responsive as possible in this time of, frankly, accelerating change.”
But some skeptics see those partnerships as a threat to higher education.
“This vision for a future of postsecondary education is a recipe for mass immiseration and public disempowerment,” John Warner, a creative writing professor and author of More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, wrote last week in an opinion column for Inside Higher Ed. “Imagine a world where Microsoft, Google, McKinsey, et al … get to determine what and how you learn from cradle to retirement.”
Assessing Career Readiness
At KTI, the assessment company ETS will play a role in deciding how and what students learn, too.
The announcement of ETS’s involvement with the KTI also comes amid changes to its business model. In January, reports surfaced that ETS is looking to sell or find strategic investors for two of its key exams, the GRE and TOEFL, which have experienced a steep decline in demand since the pandemic gave way to the rise of test-optional admissions policies.
“While the traditional test is under pressure, there are new demands for outcomes,” Amit Sevak, CEO of ETS, told Inside Higher Ed. Now, “it’s less about ETS focusing on measuring qualifications to come into higher ed and more about measuring career readiness after leaving higher ed.”
Last year, ETS began piloting a skills-assessment platform called FutureNAV at California State University campuses and Brandeis University. The tool produces a “skills-based transcript”—including hard-to-measure soft skills, like communication, resilience and ability to collaborate—that students can present to employers as a complement to their bachelor’s degree.
“We see the work we’re doing with KTI as an extension of that type of competency-based education support work for higher ed degrees,” Sevak said. “Defining AI is a moving target. We’re trying to stay on the curve as things are evolving.”
ETS is drawing on its existing relationships with employers to help develop and validate KTI’s assessments of AI-related competencies. However, Sevak said, KTI “will not be enrolling students in an unaccredited program.”
But that may make it difficult for KTI to open within the next one to two years as planned.
Asking students to take a leap of faith by enrolling in an unaccredited program will be the only way for KTI to get accredited—and get access to federal student aid—said Lawrence M. Schall, president of the New England Commission of Higher Education, which accredits more than 200 institutions.
“A school has to be in operation before we can even start the process,” he said. “The first thing we do is send a team out to an institution to observe classes, talk to faculty, staff and students, and look at the curriculum. It can’t be theoretical. It has to be operational and have some kind of financial model that would convince us this isn’t a start-up that could close at any minute.”
Institutions also need to provide accreditors with information about student outcomes in the classroom and in the job market. And the entire accreditation process can take anywhere from two to six years, with start-ups typically on the longer side.
“Accreditors need to be convinced it’s not going to fail,” Schall said. “It’s part of the reason why accreditors don’t accredit schools in six, 12 or 18 months when nobody has actually graduated.”
