As millions of young people evaluate what to do after high school — whether to attend a traditional college, pursue a technical training program or simply forgo higher education — a new option will soon enter the radar.
Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, announced the launch of the Khan TED Institute, a joint initiative with TED and testing giant ETS that will offer a low-cost AI-focused degree designed to rival elite institutions like Harvard and Stanford.
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“Higher education has served many, many people very, very well. And we believe there are many good reasons to attend a traditional university, but not everyone has access to these opportunities,” Khan said in a video announcing the program.
“Furthermore, the world is changing very, very, very quickly. We want to ensure that there are paths so that even people with traditional degrees can continue to retrain and complement their training, to be prepared in the best possible way for a future in constant transformation.”
The Khan TED Institute is expected to launch in the next 12 to 24 months and seek academic accreditation. The estimated cost should be below US$10,000 — a fraction of what students pay at the country’s most prestigious institutions. For comparison purposes, tuition at Stanford alone is expected to reach US$67,731 in the next academic year, while at Harvard it will be US$62,226.
The program will begin with a bachelor’s degree in applied AI and expand over time, serving recent graduates to mid-career professionals — especially those excluded from traditional universities or who want to add in-demand technology skills to an existing degree.
Khan stated that the objective is not to replace traditional higher education, but to expand access and better align training with the demands of a rapidly changing job market.
Generation Z rethinks higher education, and Khan believes he has a solution
Young people’s relationship with higher education is increasingly strained as the cost of a degree continues to rise. More than 42.5 million Americans have federal student loan debt, with the average balance exceeding $39,000.
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At the same time, many graduates face difficulties gaining a foothold in the job market: 5.6% of recent graduates are unemployed, while 42.5% are underemployed — working in roles that typically do not require a degree — according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
This dynamic has caused about 51% of Gen Z graduates to regret attending college, according to a 2025 Indeed survey.
Khan said the new institution aims to bridge this gap by working directly with corporate partners — including Google, Microsoft, Accenture, Bain, McKinsey and Replit — to shape the curriculum and ensure it reflects the skills that employers truly value.
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This includes a focus on both AI and hot technical skills and soft skills such as collaboration, sense of community, creativity and communication.
This is not Khan’s first attempt to adapt education to a rapidly changing world driven by technology. Three years ago, he launched Khanmigo, an AI chatbot designed to act as a tutor for students and an assistant for teachers. But implementation fell short of expectations.
“For a lot of students, it didn’t make a difference,” Khan told Chalkbeat earlier this month. “They just didn’t use it much.”
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The new institution represents a more ambitious bet — that AI-driven skills-based learning can be built into the very structure of a degree, not just added as an add-on.
“This really can make a positive impact on what the world needs,” Khan said in his announcement video. “We can create a world where more people truly have access to their potential and opportunities.”
At the new school, students will graduate by proving their skills
Much of the new institute’s coursework will be online and asynchronous, which can represent a challenge for young people looking to develop communication and collaboration skills in a world fragmented by social media.
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A 2024 LinkedIn report found that one in five Gen Z workers hasn’t even had a direct conversation with someone over the age of 50 in their workplace in the last year.
However, ETS CEO Amit Sevak said the program will be specifically designed to replicate some of the less tangible benefits of college — like networking, socialization and personal growth — but in a format that reflects how people actually work today.
“Many of the most meaningful professional relationships today are formed in distributed teams, across different time zones, and through joint problem solving,” Sevak told Fortune.
“With this in mind, students work in structured teams, help peers as tutors, participate in dialogue sessions, and collaborate on hands-on group AI projects with people from around the world.”
Furthermore, instead of measuring progress by attendance time, students advance by demonstrating that they have truly mastered the content.
Sevak sees this as a key reason why the model can work where traditional higher education has failed — and why it has a real chance of fulfilling its promise to future generations skeptical about the return on investment in education.
“Reducing costs is important, but access without results does not expand opportunities,” said Sevak. “When students can see progress and employers can see readiness, persistence and completion improve. This alignment is what gives this model a real chance of working.”
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