At the 2026 Microsoft Digital Sovereignty Summit in Brussels, leaders from policy, IT, and industry gathered to discuss how to balance sovereignty and innovation. A clear theme emerged: digital sovereignty has become a continuous risk management discipline, one that strengthens resilience, security, and innovation.

Five key insights surfaced, outlining what digital sovereignty looks like in practice for education institutions.

1. Digital sovereignty is about operating confidently in uncertainty

Leaders at the summit grounded digital sovereignty in practical terms, reframing it as a risk management discipline rather than an abstract policy concept. For education leaders navigating data privacy compliance, research data requirements, and enabling cross-institution collaboration, this means the goal is to understand risk clearly and apply the right level of control.

A key insight was that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Every workload, whether a student information system, a research platform, or an administrative application, carries a unique risk profile and compliance obligation. Sovereignty decisions must be made deliberately, workload-by-workload, enabling institutions to make clearer, more confident decisions in changing conditions. Education leaders should assess risk across student systems, research platforms, and administrative solutions individually rather than applying a single institutional policy to all workloads.

2. Sovereignty and innovation should reinforce each other

A clear consensus emerged at the summit: Institutions do not need to choose between innovation and sovereignty. When grounded in strong security and governance, sovereignty creates the conditions for innovation to thrive. With that foundation in place, education leaders can pursue AI-driven capabilities like adaptive learning, personalized student support, and accelerated research while safeguarding sensitive data in a secure, compliant environment. That requires bringing AI strategy, cloud strategy, and governance into one planning process so institutions can drive innovation while maintaining full control over their data and infrastructure.

Sovereignty is not a single architecture decision. It’s about applying the right controls to each workload without compromising continuity, flexibility, and innovation. Across cloud and hybrid environments, the right controls help institutions protect sensitive data, meet compliance requirements, and improve resilience. Microsoft Sovereign Cloud supports this approach by combining sovereignty capabilities with integrated security to help institutions maintain control while continuing to innovate.

3. Modern cybersecurity requires collaboration, scale, and trust

Sovereignty without cybersecurity is a non-starter, and speakers addressed that reality directly. For education leaders managing sensitive student records, research data, and critical administrative systems, cyber threats continue to evolve, making visibility and coordination essential. Cybersecurity is now a continuous operational priority, not a periodic compliance exercise.

Importantly, discussions challenged a common misconception: that isolation alone equals security. Disconnecting systems or building digital walls can create blind spots by limiting access to global threat intelligence, coordinated response, and real-time threat detection. Strong cybersecurity safeguards do more than reduce risk; they are the foundation for sovereignty and digital transformation. Education leaders should evaluate not just whether systems meet requirements under normal conditions, but whether they deliver the continuous visibility, resilience, and threat defense needed to maintain real control over their environments.

4. Digital sovereignty in the era of AI goes beyond data residency

Summit discussions also reinforced that AI operating under sovereign requirements must be built on responsible data processing and transparent control. This goes beyond where data is stored, requiring clear boundaries around how data is processed, how AI models are trained and operated, and full visibility into how these systems behave across their lifecycle. Leaders emphasized that institutions need AI systems that not only meet today’s regulatory and security obligations but remain trustworthy, auditable, and resilient as requirements evolve. In practice, that means asking not just where data is stored, but where prompts and responses are processed, who can access them, and how controls are applied.

For institutions, sovereignty must be designed end-to-end, including infrastructure, platforms, security, data governance, and AI workloads. To support this, Microsoft is building new capabilities across the stack to support sovereign requirements at scale. For education leaders, these capabilities provide verifiable control over how data is processed and how AI is deployed across learning, research, and operations.

5. Making digital sovereignty work requires collaboration

The final takeaway reinforced a theme that ran through every discussion: digital sovereignty succeeds through collaboration, not isolation. It depends on institutions, governments, and technology providers working together to translate policy into operational reality. Rather than isolating systems, institutions that combine local expertise with trusted cloud and AI infrastructure can maintain control, meet regulatory requirements, and drive innovation simultaneously.

For education institutions, that shared approach makes sovereignty more scalable and practical across teaching, research, and operations. Just as importantly, collaboration helps institutions meet local requirements and maintain the interoperability needed to connect systems, services, and teams. In practice, that means applying the right level of control where sensitivity requires it, not isolating systems in ways that increase risk or operational burden.

A practical approach to digital sovereignty

A strong sovereignty posture gives institutions choice, visibility, and control across diverse environments. The goal is to align capabilities with institutional responsibilities, regulatory requirements, and the sensitivity of each workload, applying the right controls to each rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. For education leaders, that means strong encryption, transparency, and clear access controls in public cloud, with hybrid and sovereign solutions available where greater control is required.  

A risk management discipline that strengthens innovation

Microsoft’s expanded sovereign cloud continuum enables critical workloads to run across diverse environments while still benefiting from innovation, advanced security, operational transparency, and features like the EU Data Boundary and long-standing encryption and access safeguards.

Digital sovereignty is now an institution-wide discipline rooted in risk management. With trusted digital systems, institutions can make deliberate, workload-specific decisions across learning, research, and operations while balancing security, compliance, resilience, and innovation.

Learn more about Microsoft’s approach to sovereignty, security, and innovation

• Microsoft Sovereign Cloud in Europe: Read the whitepaper to learn how Microsoft is approaching sovereignty, security, compliance, and resilience in Europe.
  
• The Future of Learning Starts with Trust: Download this e-book to see how K-12 leaders can adopt trustworthy AI with confidence.
  

The post 5 insights for education leaders from the 2026 Microsoft Digital Sovereignty Summit appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

As EDUCAUSE’s 2025 Top 10 IT Issues highlights, a leading priority is to build data-empowered institutions that use data, analytics, and AI to enhance decision-making, simplify workflows, and empower teams to improve student success.

Yet many institutions are still limited by siloed and inconsistent data spread across dozens of systems. Becoming data empowered takes more than new tools. It requires democratized data and insights, a clear strategy, and a culture that supports data-driven decision making.

A single, AI-powered platform can provide the secure foundation for unified data. It allows institutions to use AI in ways that are practical and measurable. It has the potential to connect disconnected systems and empower leaders, faculty, and staff with insights that create impact across many parts of the institution.

Building the foundation of a data-empowered institution

Becoming a data-empowered institution is not a one-time project but a continuous strategy that can transform how colleges and universities operate. Institutions that lead with data can:

• Drive institutional strategy with intelligent insights.
• Seamlessly govern and protect data across campus.
• Accelerate research workflows with generative AI.

While unified data and AI-powered insights are key enablers, institutions must also prioritize data security and governance to provide leaders with trusted insights for decision-making. With these fundamentals in place, data can become a trusted institutional asset that helps strengthen collaboration across teams and break down departmental silos. When data is managed as an institutional asset, leaders can make informed decisions and allocate resources where they’ll have the greatest impact.

Microsoft Fabric helps unify data and teams to apply AI at scale, enhance decision-making, and build trust in insights by breaking down silos, improving performance visibility, accelerating innovation, and promoting data security. With these capabilities, leaders can better align resources, support student success, and stay resilient in a rapidly changing environment.

Driving institutional strategy with intelligent insights

Higher education leaders face mounting pressure to make faster, smarter decisions amid enrollment shifts, funding uncertainty, and workforce changes. These challenges ripple across budgets, staffing, and student services, while siloed systems often fragment financial, enrollment, and student success data, leaving leaders with outdated or incomplete insights.

Microsoft Fabric offers a unified foundation to turn institutional data into a source of agility and confidence. By connecting systems and applying predictive analytics, leaders can model scenarios, uncover insights, and act on opportunities such as:

• Tracking shifts in applications and yield rates to redirect outreach and boost enrollment.
• Identifying early signs of attrition and activating support to keep students on track.
• Modelling how changes in enrollment, aid, or scholarships affect financial outcomes.

By transforming data into actionable intelligence, institutions move from reacting to challenges to anticipating them. With AI-powered insights, leaders can automate outreach, streamline reporting, and coordinate action across departments to support student success and institutional resilience.

Like many other schools, Xavier College was grappling with a complex network of platforms and IT products, with its data scattered across 130 disparate systems. The College migrated all current and historic student and staff data to Microsoft Azure in under seven months, consolidating multiple systems and eliminating the need to manage data separately.

Key considerations for leaders: Are your financial and operational models rooted in historical data, or do they anticipate and shape strategy?

Governing and protecting data seamlessly

Colleges and universities manage sensitive information across student records, financial data, medical research, and intellectual property. Rising cyberthreats and evolving compliance requirements can put this sensitive data at risk while fragmented security tools overextend IT and security teams.

By protecting sensitive information and addressing risks quickly, institutions can safeguard research, teaching, and operations while maintaining trust and compliance. Strong data governance helps promote responsible information use, supporting innovation and collaboration without compromising security.

These measures help institutions protect valuable data and maintain trust with researchers and partners:

• Automate checks and reporting to improve audit readiness and reduce manual effort.
• Demonstrate robust data protection to secure grants and renewals.
• Monitor and respond to threats in real time, minimizing disruptions.

As part of Oregon State University’s (OSU) commitment to innovative security protocols, they continue to both deepen and expand their cybersecurity posture. They’re using Microsoft Security Copilot alongside Microsoft security tools with the goal of elevating their proactive security measures, allowing analysts to focus on tasks that add greater value to the institution.

Key considerations for leaders: Does your institution have unified visibility across all data systems, or are gaps still creating risk and stretching your teams thin?

Accelerating research breakthroughs

Research breakthroughs frequently require accurate, connected data that’s ready to power new insights. Critical information is often scattered across disconnected systems, which can make it difficult for faculty and researchers to collaborate efficiently or uncover patterns that drive innovation. In many cases, valuable time is spent cleaning and cross-checking data instead of focusing on discovery.

When institutions build a strong data foundation, they can discover new possibilities. Unified, well-governed data allows researchers to ask better questions, explore trends faster, and collaborate across disciplines while giving leaders a chance to gain predictive insights to drive breakthroughs.

When data is connected and trusted, AI can take research further by automating routine analysis, revealing new patterns, and suggesting fresh directions to explore. With the right foundation in place, faculty and students have an opportunity to spend less time managing information and more time advancing knowledge, securing funding, and driving the institution’s long-term growth.

Using Azure OpenAI, researchers at Georgia Tech were able to analyze unstructured data to better understand the charging experience of electric vehicle (EV) drivers. The volume of information was substantial, but it was estimated that human experts would require 99 weeks to extract the salient data points, which wasn’t realistic. Azure OpenAI was pivotal in advancing the research.

Key considerations for leaders: Are your research teams able to quickly connect datasets across disciplines, or are insights still fragmented and slowing discovery?

Unifying teams and data to support student success

Data empowerment helps institutions maximize innovation and value across operations, instruction, and systems:

• Simplify faculty and staff workflows – Unified data and automation can help streamline administrative work and empower educators. AI-powered tools are being used to improve efficiency and free up time for more strategic tasks. At the University of Waterloo, an AI assistant is helping students navigate job searches more efficiently and access support, contributing to a more streamlined experience that aligns with the university’s focus on student success.
• Engage learners and alumni – With a strong focus on student success and social mobility, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) is transforming higher education to meet the diverse needs of its students. By connecting siloed data and applying AI-powered tools, the university is streamlining processes and personalizing engagement across the student journey.

Becoming a data-empowered institution is a journey, not a destination. These five scenarios show how institutions can transform operations when data is unified, and AI is applied with purpose. The path to proactive leadership starts with unified data. Microsoft can help you move with confidence.

Download the Data-Empowered Institution e-book to see how leading institutions are putting these scenarios into action, and how your campus can take the next step.

Ready to learn more? Discover additional resources and tools to accelerate your data empowerment journey:

• Read the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study to see how leading organizations achieved 379% ROI with Microsoft Fabric, and how your institution can apply these insights to maximize the value of its data.
• Explore how Microsoft Fabric can help your institution securely unify data, enhance collaboration, and prepare your organization for the AI era.

The post Building data-empowered higher education institutions appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

At Microsoft, we recognize the evolving needs of educators and institutions—and we see them as opportunities to provide meaningful support through a secure, high-performing platform. Windows 11 helps you simplify IT, support equity, and unlock future-ready learning.

Let’s explore how Windows 11 is built to securely support today’s educational needs and deliver AI-powered experiences. We’ll also highlight your upgrade paths to Windows 11 as Windows 10 approaches end of support (EOS) on October 14, 2025.

Secure by design, ready for the modern classroom

As learning continues to become more connected and digital-first, having a secure technology foundation is more important than ever. Windows 11 was built with this in mind—combining modern protections with performance and usability.

Microsoft Defender provides real-time protection that updates automatically, helping you stay ahead of evolving digital risks with less manual work. Hardware-level security features like Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 are built in, helping safeguard student and school data at every level—from classroom to district.

These capabilities don’t just protect—they help you simplify. With centralized management through Microsoft Intune, your IT teams can more easily promote consistency across devices and reduce time spent on maintenance and troubleshooting.

Performance matters too. Windows 11 provides practical enhancements to the classroom experience, including faster boot times, improved multitasking capabilities, extended battery life, and accessibility tools such as voice typing and live captions—all designed to empower every student to participate and succeed.

Explore how Windows 11 can help you save time, track progress, and support diverse learning needs in the classroom.

Scale digital learning

Ceibal, a government agency in Uruguay, was founded to universalize access to digital technology in the Uruguayan public education system and is the largest education Microsoft tenant in Latin America. In 2023 they adopted Windows 11 as the main operating system and more than 240,000 students and teachers across Uruguay were using Windows 11 PCs. Their learning management system (LMS) CREA saw usage rates increase from 55% in 2019 to 86% in 2024.¹ The migration also delivered practical benefits: maintenance and update costs decreased, and compatibility between software and hardware improved significantly.

Prior to moving to Windows 11, maintenance and update costs were higher because each device model had its own OS version. Additionally, compatibility between software and hardware made things even more difficult. By integrating Windows 11, everything became much quicker and simpler with added security.

Mateo Pérez, Product Coordinator at Ceibal

Forward-looking platform for personalized learning

Windows 11 is built to support not just today’s educational needs, but tomorrow’s innovations. As AI continues to become an integral part of teaching and learning, schools need tools that are both powerful and practical—helping educators adapt without requiring them to overhaul their workflows.

One example is Microsoft Learning Zone, a Windows app designed to save educators time while enhancing student engagement. Built for Copilot+ PCs, Learning Zone uses on-device AI to help educators create personalized, interactive lessons from the materials they already use—turning a worksheet or slide deck into student-ready activities in minutes.

Whether introducing new concepts, reinforcing key ideas, or tailoring practice to individual learners, Learning Zone puts AI directly into the teaching workflow—responsibly and privately. Because it runs on the device, educators stay in control of both content and student data.

Available in public preview, Learning Zone shows how Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs can support modern instruction while preserving privacy and empowering educator creativity. Educators can also use built-in trusted content from world-class partners—from NASA’s hands-on exploration and OpenStax’s Rice University-backed curriculum to Minecraft Education’s immersive game-based learning and Kahoot!’s AI-powered instant quiz generation—all seamlessly integrated and ready to inspire student curiosity from day one.

Planning your upgrade to Windows 11 Education

With Windows 10 support ending on October 14, 2025, you have several options to keep your learning environments secure and AI-ready. Every institution is in a different place with budgets and timelines, so the transition doesn’t have to happen all at once. Microsoft offers three flexible paths to help institutions transition based on their budget and readiness.

Option 1: Upgrading eligible devices

Many existing devices are compatible with Windows 11. Microsoft offers a free tool called PC Health Check that tells you if your device meets the requirements for Windows 11. Schools can use Microsoft Intune to upgrade at no additional cost—unlocking immediate security, performance, and accessibility improvements without investing in new hardware.

Option 2: Making the most of device transitions

When it’s time to purchase new Windows 11 PCs, to help ensure older devices are responsibly recycled or repurposed whenever possible, we encourage the use of trade-in and recycling programs available through our retail and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. To help schools stretch their budgets, eligible devices can be securely recycled with cashback to offset new purchases through select programs. For devices that don’t qualify for trade-in, Microsoft’s end-of-life management programs support sustainability goals through responsible recycling.

You can also explore Shape the Future, a Microsoft discount program that helps K–12 education institutions access affordable Windows 11 PCs and promote digital equity.

Free planning tools to support your Windows 11 upgrade

Microsoft offers resources to help assess and plan your upgrade to Windows 11. These tools are designed to give you clear insights and support confident decision-making.

• Windows EOS Devices Calculator: Estimate the benefits and costs of upgrading or understand what it takes to maintain Windows 10 devices securely after support ends.
• Windows 11 Migration Assessment: Evaluate your institution’s readiness for Windows 11 and get practical recommendations for your transition.

Option 3: Phase your rollout

If replacing all devices at once isn’t possible, consider a hybrid plan. For eligible devices, upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and enroll in the Extended Security Update (ESU) program for licenses on a per device basis until you’re ready to fully transition. The ESU program allows covered devices to continue to receive security updates for up to three years. ESU pricing for Microsoft Education customers will be $1 per device for the first year, $2 the following year, and $4 the third year to help institutions receive the support they need.² This offer is extended to all education customers, including K-12 and higher education.

Invest in AI-powered learning

Schools ready to enhance productivity through AI can consider Copilot+ PCs. These Windows 11 PCs, in comparison to traditional devices, deliver faster performance, longer battery life, and on-device AI experiences that support a long-term investment in educational innovation. Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent, and secure Windows 11 PCs ever, optimized for AI-powered experiences like Learning Zone.

No matter your timeline, Microsoft is committed to helping your school move forward confidently—keeping learning secure today while preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities.

The transition to Windows 11 doesn’t have to happen overnight—but planning should start now. A well-managed move can lead to stronger security, reduced maintenance, improved compatibility, and higher engagement.

Windows 11 offers every school a high-performance foundation for learning today—and innovation tomorrow. Whether your district is ready to upgrade or just starting to plan, Microsoft is here to help every step of the way.

Explore Windows 11 today and see how your school can reimagine teaching and learning.

¹ Ceibal LMS usage statistics, 2024

² All prices are in US dollars and accurate as of October 2025. Regional prices will vary based on foreign exchange rates at the moment of ordering SKUs.

The post Build secure, future-ready learning experiences with Windows 11 appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

From small classroom changes to larger system-wide strategies, AI is becoming part of the future of education. The conversation is no longer “if” but “how” as institutions consider what that means for students, educators, and institutions. To better understand this shift, we conducted numerous studies and surveys and collaborated with academic institutions and organizations. The 2025 AI in Education Report explores current AI use, emerging opportunities and leading examples, and what’s next for its role in education.

Here are four key takeaways from the 2025 AI in Education Report:

1. AI adoption is accelerating across education, but training hasn’t kept pace.
2. AI can be a creative and collaborative partner, by complementing—not replacing—traditional learning methods.
3. AI fluency is a workforce imperative, with growing pressure on institutions to prepare students accordingly.
4. AI is helping reimagine learning experiences, but challenges around responsible usage and readiness must be addressed head-on.

We’ve also surveyed academic and IT leaders, educators, and students from around the world—explore the detailed AI in Education Report survey data for more insights.

1. AI adoption is accelerating across education

The report findings show that AI usage in education has surged, with 86% of education organizations now using generative AI—the highest rate of any industry.¹ In the United States:

• Student use of AI for school jumped 26 percentage points from last year.
• Educator use rose 21 percentage points.

From personalized learning in K-12 classrooms to AI-powered administrative tools in universities, institutions are rapidly integrating AI to improve efficiency, engagement, and outcomes.

But it seems that AI training hasn’t kept pace:

• Less than half of US students and global educators say they know a lot about AI.
• Internationally, 76% of leaders say that half or more of AI users at their institution have received AI training.
• Yet 45% of educators globally and 52% of US students say they haven’t received any training.

This mismatch signals a perception gap between what leaders think they’ve delivered, and what students and educators feel they’ve received.

Recommendations

• Share the AI for educators learning path to help educators build confidence and practical skills for using AI in their daily practice.
• Offer ongoing, differentiated professional learning using the AI Skills Navigator.
• Use the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit to guide strategic planning across your institution.

2. AI is a creative and collaborative partner

AI is helping students, educators, and education leaders think more creatively and work more collaboratively. The 2025 AI in Education Report shows that:

• Students are using AI to brainstorm assignments (37%), summarize information (33%), and receive feedback (32%).
• Educators are using it to brainstorm, create, and update lessons (31%), simplify complex topics (24%), and differentiate instruction (23%), freeing up time to focus on student engagement.
• Leaders are using it to streamline operations (35%), provide accessibility tools (33%), and identify opportunities for student growth (33%).

These uses help leaders and educators free up time for engagement, empower students to learn in ways that work best for them, and encourage creative exploration for all.

While AI use is growing, the report findings show that it’s more effective when used to complement—not replace—traditional learning methods. A study from Microsoft Research and Cambridge University Press & Assessment found that students who combined AI tools with note-taking and other methods learned more than those who relied on AI alone.

Recommendations

• Encourage experimentation with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat to explore new ways of enhancing, not replacing, traditional learning methods.
• Use AI-powered Microsoft Learning Accelerators to complement instruction—giving students real-time feedback and supporting you in guiding their learning.

We use Copilot Chat as a brainstorming partner to ideate, but not to actually do our work for us. It helps us collaborate and expand our creativity to think of more ambitious ideas.

Pragya Modgil, student, Johns Creek High School, Fulton County Schools

3. AI fluency is a workforce imperative

AI fluency is becoming a top priority for new workers—alongside fundamentally human skills like conflict mitigation and adaptability. Together, these skills are going to be essential when students enter the new world of work. The report notes that:

• Upwards of 47% of leaders consider upskilling employees in AI is the top workforce strategy for the next 12 to 18 months.
• 66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI literacy skills.

Educators and education leaders acknowledge the need for more AI skills training, with 54% of global educators and 76% of global leaders viewing AI literacy as an essential component of basic education for every student. Today’s students will need to be able to:

• Know how to use AI as an assistant, not as a tool.
• Learn how and when to delegate to AI and when to involve people.
• Think like managers—since it’s likely they’ll be managing AI.

Recommendations

• Explore institutional approaches like the “Teaching with AI” course at Auburn University or the Waterloo Experience Accelerate Program at the University of Waterloo.
• Use the immersive activities in Minecraft Education AI Foundations to teach students both technical and human-centered AI skills.
• Transform teaching and support job readiness with Copilot Chat, available for students 13 and older.

4. AI is helping to reimagine learning experiences

Whether it’s supporting neurodivergent learners, facilitating multilingual communication, or acting as a brainstorming partner, AI is empowering students and educators to explore new ways of thinking and learning together. In a UK-based study, university students and educators said AI helped them overcome creative blocks, explore new topics, and clarify complex content—describing it as a collaborative partner available around the clock.

Yet while AI is expanding new possibilities in education, realizing its full potential requires addressing the concerns it raises. The 2025 AI in Education Report sheds light on the evolving landscape:

• Students are most concerned about being accused of plagiarism or cheating (33%) and becoming too dependent on AI (30%).
• Educators’ top concern is plagiarism (31%), followed by overreliance (21%), misinformation (20%), security (20%), and insufficient training (20%).
• Leaders are most concerned about ethical concerns (21%), lack of IT readiness (20%), and equitable access (18%).

Recommendations from the report to address these concerns include fostering open communication, leaning into always-on training opportunities, and creating space for your community to share and reflect. Together, these actions can help build a more informed, inclusive, and confident culture.

Recommendations

• Read the IDC White Paper, A Blueprint for AI-Ready Campuses, sponsored by Microsoft, for organizational, process, and technological recommendations to shape and advance AI strategy.²
• Explore real-world stories of AI in education from World Traveler School, Brisbane Catholic Education, and Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
• Get started with AI solutions from Microsoft Education to expand possibilities at your institution.

Creating opportunity through AI in education

While AI familiarity and usage are high across all groups, gaps remain. The insights from this report point to four key challenges facing AI in education:

• Adoption without alignment – Widespread AI use is outpacing training and shared understanding among educators and students.
• Creative potential, cautious optimism – The possibilities with AI are inspiring but must be grounded in proven teaching and learning strategies to be effective.
• Workforce preparation needs – Institutions recognize the importance of AI literacy but need practical support to embed it meaningfully into curriculum and instruction.
• Reimagining learning responsibly – AI offers exciting potential, and realizing that potential will require engaging students and educators to build solutions together through open communication.

To move forward, educators, leaders, and students should work together, adapt in real time, and commit to responsible use of AI. Educators and leaders aren’t asking for bans—they’re calling for high-quality, job-embedded professional learning.

Teachers are saying, ‘I need training, it needs to be high quality, relevant, and job-embedded…’ In reality, people require guidance and that means teachers and administrators going through professional development.

Pat Yongpradit, Chief Academic Officer of Code.org and Lead of TeachAI

AI can be a powerful thought partner and force multiplier—amplifying ideas, streamlining tasks, and unlocking new possibilities for teaching and learning. As you navigate the opportunities and complexities of AI, Microsoft Education is here to support you with tools, training, and insights. Explore the full 2025 AI in Education Report to dive deeper into the data and use the resources in this blog to support your own AI journey.

¹ IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024. IDC’s 2024 AI opportunity study: Top five AI trends to watch – The Official Microsoft Blog

² IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, A Blueprint for AI-Ready Campuses: Strategies from the Frontlines of Higher Education, IDC# US53344625, May 2025. AI-ready campuses: Strategies from higher education frontlines | Microsoft Education Blog

The post AI in Education Report: Insights to support teaching and learning appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

With these advances in AI, institutions now have a powerful new opportunity: to use agents that can automate routine tasks, assist faculty and staff, and provide real-time, contextual insights to support teaching and learning. As more institutions begin their journey to this next frontier, AI agents will support individuals and teams by automating tasks and delivering instant, contextual insights.

This means that with data-focused AI tools from Microsoft, your institution can:

• Develop scalable, intelligent agents using Azure AI Foundry, trusted by enterprises and customized for higher education compliance and innovation.
• Turn data insights into action with AI-powered analytics, addressing challenges in student success, research productivity, and operational agility.

Accelerate agentic AI with Azure AI Foundry

Azure AI Foundry Agent Service empowers institutions to securely design, deploy, and scale agents with ease. Enhance your team’s efficiency with agents that simplify academic and operational workflows with robust security and trust features built in. This provides key tools and resources to help you:

• Create domain-specific agents to automate complex tasks.
• Use enterprise-grade identity for agents and built-in trustworthy AI.
• Deploy and scale agents quickly with managed infrastructure.

Create and scale domain-specific agents

With Azure AI Foundry Agent Service, your team can create domain-specific agents tailored to your unique needs. It helps you design, deploy, and scale agents that are ready for real-world use. This fully managed service handles infrastructure and orchestration. It includes ready-to-use templates, actions, and connectors for more than 1,400 enterprise data sources, including SharePoint, Microsoft Fabric, and third-party systems. For instance, you can design and deploy agents to help onboard new students with personalized guidance and support administrative teams with instant responses to common questions.

Institutions like Stanford Medicine are already using the healthcare agent orchestrator in Azure AI Foundry alongside Microsoft Copilot Studio. This integration enhances the efficiency of tumor board meetings through customized clinical workflows.

Secure and manage your agents

Creating agents is just the beginning—managing them responsibly plays a critical role in their effective use. With Microsoft Entra Agent ID, you can:

• Gain complete visibility and control over agents’ actions.
• Assign unique identities for each agent.
• Share identity management with your team members.
• Define access controls and permissions for each agent.

Trustworthy AI is a foundational commitment for Microsoft and for our customers. We’ve introduced new capabilities to help institutions discover, protect, and govern AI systems from the start.

On the security side, Azure AI Foundry integrates with Microsoft Defender for Cloud to provide real-time alerts and insights when threats arise. For compliance, out-of-the box integration with governance tools like Credo AI, Saidot, and Microsoft Purview, helps institutions monitor model performance, assess fairness, and track regulatory requirements.

By using Azure AI Foundry’s built-in tools for safety, security, and governance, institutions can design and deploy AI systems with greater reliability from the start.

Powering the next AI frontier with Microsoft Fabric

Strong data is foundational to effective AI. Microsoft Fabric helps unify your data to power analytics and agents—without the burden of managing complex infrastructure. As a SaaS solution, Fabric offers seamless integration of data tools and can reduce the need for manual service connections.

At its core is Microsoft OneLake, an open and unified data lake that supports any format, from any cloud. This flexibility allows developers to access and analyze all types of data efficiently.

Fabric also transforms how you manage and interact with data. With natural language capabilities, you can explore insights that drive student success, enhance research, and boost operational agility—empowering everyone to make informed, data-driven decisions.

Find the right data when you need it

Education leaders need tools that turn insights into action. That’s why we’re focused on making data more accessible through conversational experiences. With Copilot in Power BI, users can now ask questions in natural language and receive instant insights—no technical training needed to get started. Whether it’s enrollment trends, retention risks, or alumni giving, faculty and staff can explore data directly within Microsoft Teams to streamline their workflow.

Empower everyone to interact with their data

With enhanced interaction capabilities in Power BI and Copilot Studio, transforming data into actionable insights can now be faster and more intuitive. You can explore data through natural, conversational experiences, removing complexity, and making analysis more accessible. This shift empowers you and your teams to break down data silos and uncover valuable insights with ease. Power BI chat simplifies the exploration of complex datasets, offering quicker, more confident decision-making.

Uncover deeper insights with data agents

Finally, connecting Fabric data agents to Copilot Studio can help uncover deeper insights. These agents expertly analyze complex datasets, uncovering valuable insights from OneLake and driving informed action. By automating tasks like email sending and workflow triggering, they streamline your interactions with enterprise data, enabling confident decision-making.

Embrace the future of data-driven higher education with Microsoft Azure and Azure AI Foundry. Discover how innovative data agents and AI-powered insights can enhance your approach to learning and operations. Start your journey today and uncover the limitless possibilities that await you.

The post Discover the potential of agentic AI in higher education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Minecraft Education promotes critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving while helping students develop digital skills for their future. It can also help motivate learning, improve attendance, and build student agency. Educators use it for everything from building AI literacy through immersive lessons to sustainable design challenges and esports programs.

Explore this collection of Minecraft Education experiences designed to support your instruction, boost engagement, and inspire creativity in the classroom. Parents and caregivers can also support their child’s learning outside of school with Minecraft Education. With materials like a digital safety family toolkit, you’ll find ways to use Minecraft to explore important topics at home, too. Discover Minecraft Education resources for parents and families today.

Digital citizenship, coding, and AI

Today’s students are growing up in a world shaped by digital tools, AI, and rapid technological change. Minecraft Education helps prepare them to navigate that world responsibly and confidently. With Minecraft Education, students can engage in hands-on experiences that help them strengthen digital citizenship, explore responsible AI use, and build coding fluency all within a familiar and playful learning space that connects to their everyday lives.

Check out these Minecraft Education worlds designed to help students explore, create, and grow as digital citizens.

• CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper – Build digital citizenship and AI literacy skills with CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper. This engaging adventure challenges students to go beyond the surface and explore responsible AI, critical thinking, and data literacy. Don’t just accept AI at face value—dig deeper and discover the power of mindful technology use!
• Hour of Code: The Show Must Go On – Step into a vibrant theater world to help save the day in Minecraft’s Hour of Code 2024: The Show Must Go On. In this adventure, students will explore the theater to find the missing star, the Agent, while solving fun coding puzzles and interacting with lively characters. They’ll unlock hidden gags, customize the show, and plan an unforgettable performance.
• GameCode – Empower creative coding with this dynamic curriculum where students create their own arcade-style mini-games and learn computer science along the way. This immersive and innovative approach to coding will ignite the passion for programming in students as they become inventive game designers, empowered to shape their digital landscapes.

These experiences introduce students to essential digital concepts while allowing them to iterate and build in a safe, creative environment. Demystify complex subjects like AI and coding with your students through game-based learning with Minecraft.

Core subjects and STEM

It can be challenging to make abstract academic concepts feel exciting, relevant, and accessible. That’s where Minecraft Education comes in. These standards-aligned experiences are designed to help students connect with core instruction in ways that are hands-on and meaningful. From environmental science and astronomy to math and history, these worlds help students engage deeply with content through inquiry, experimentation, and creativity.

Explore these worlds to help your students apply academic concepts across subject areas.

• Ocean Heroes – Embark on a marine conservation adventure in Ocean Heroes, presented by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and Voice of the Ocean. Students will investigate ocean ecosystems alongside scientists and help them tackle environmental challenges in mangrove forests, coral reefs, and kelp forests. Along the way, they’ll encounter amazing creatures, enhance their ocean literacy, and develop critical problem-solving skills.
• Data Explorers – Build data science and sustainability skills in this world, created by ReWrite Edu in collaboration with NetApp and World’s Largest Lesson. This choose-your-next-path style game takes students across five different ecosystems in search of scientists who help them use data to solve specific environmental problems. Along the way, students can hone their data collection and analysis skills, as well as see how scientists apply data to real-world problems.
• Ratio Riddles – Introduce the concepts of ratio, proportion, fractions, and scale through a series of three engaging games designed for students ages 8-14. This is an easy-to-teach lesson designed to engage learners in foundational mathematics principles while fostering curiosity and confidence.
• Peter is Here: AI for Cultural Heritage – Step into the heart of history! Peter is Here: AI for Cultural Heritage is a captivating experience where students journey through 2,000 years of architectural innovation. Inspired by real-world preservation efforts, this immersive project lets young explorers use simulated AI tools to restore ancient wonders, from Roman engineering to Baroque masterpieces, and explore the history of St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City.
• James Webb Space Telescope Challenge – Explore the universe with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (NSW) science curricula, this immersive lesson lets students learn about the telescope’s mission, star formation, and galaxies, culminating in a solar system build challenge. Inspire future astronomers with this cosmic adventure!

These experiences support cross-curricular connections and help students build a deeper understanding of academic content and inspire curiosity through game-based learning. Get started and explore immersive content in core subjects for students of all ages.

Creative classroom fun

Sometimes the best learning happens when students are free to explore, experiment, and play. Minecraft Education’s open-ended experiences empower students to express themselves, collaborate with peers, and build creative confidence. These activities are perfect for community-building, project-based learning, or moments when your classroom needs a spark of joy.

Try these student-centered worlds to foster classroom culture and creativity.

• Wheel of Steve – Spin the Wheel of Steve in this educational adventure inspired by A Minecraft Movie. Created for students aged 8-14, Wheel of Steve supports play for up to eight learners at a time. Two teams will compete against each other in five cooperative minigames designed to strengthen key skills including creativity, collaboration, communication, community, and critical thinking.
• Renewtopia – Explore a unique island and learn about four different types of renewable energy: solar, tidal, wind, and geothermal. This interactive build challenge teaches learners about sustainable energy sources by building an exhibit for a sustainable energy fair. Their goal is to teach others about one or more of the renewable power sources found on the island.

These experiences are great for building relationships, strengthening classroom community, and letting students lead their own learning in joyful, meaningful ways. Engage your students’ creativity and strengthen future-ready skills in your classroom.

Get support and inspiration for game-based learning with Minecraft

No matter where you are in your Minecraft Education journey, there’s a community and a collection of free resources ready to help you succeed. Connect with fellow educators, participate in special events, and explore learning modules, challenges, and ideas to bring Minecraft into your classroom:

• Free training to teach AI Foundations—register for upcoming live events and view on-demand training.
• Learn the basics in the Minecraft Teacher Academy course.
• Join the Minecraft Teachers’ Lounge community.

Whether you’re helping students understand responsible technology use, reinforce academic content, or build a thriving classroom culture, Minecraft Education offers immersive worlds that make learning engaging and meaningful. These experiences aren’t just lessons—they’re launchpads for curiosity, creativity, and confidence.

Check out Minecraft Education to explore the full collection of lessons, access educator resources, and start teaching with the power of play today.

The post Bring learning to life with Minecraft Education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Wichita Public Schools (WPS), an early adopter of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, has thoughtfully integrated AI into their district. Through this ongoing journey, they’ve uncovered practical ways that AI can support accessibility, personalize instruction, and help reduce administrative workload. Their experiences highlight both the potential, and the planning required—from aligning tools with instructional goals to helping ensure educators feel supported and prepared. In May 2025, WPS was honored with the ISTE+ASCD Distinguished District Award—a testament to the district’s ongoing leadership and innovation in education.

As you explore your own AI journey, WPS offers a valuable example of how sustained, intentional AI adoption can create meaningful impact. Try Copilot Chat today and discover the impact AI can have on your school.

Driving innovation through AI

Educators at WPS began their journey with Copilot Chat in 2023, using it in a variety of ways to support teaching and learning. This included creating instructional materials tailored to their students’ needs and translating content to support inclusive learning across the over 100 languages spoken by their diverse student body. This foundational work paved the way for a broader integration of AI throughout the district. 

Building on their early efforts, WPS has started using more advanced AI tools. That includes Microsoft 365 Copilot, which brings AI into apps like Word, Excel, and Microsoft Teams to help amplify creativity and boost productivity for educators, staff, and leaders alike. In addition, the district has developed custom agents tailored to meet specific needs across departments. 

The district also welcomed its first AI specialist, Katelyn Schoenhofer, whose role includes training staff, supporting AI policy development and responsible use, maintaining data integrity. She also helps district leaders, educators, and students understand the role of AI in the future of education. Her work helps ensure that AI is introduced with clarity, consistency, and accountability—and that it’s aligned with the district’s goals. 

Discover the potential of AI to help enhance learning, equip students for the future, boost efficiency and cybersecurity, and free up time for what matters most. 

Intentional AI integration

At WPS, AI adoption is not about chasing trends. It’s a deliberate strategy grounded in human-centered design and professional learning. For WPS, human-centered means prioritizing the needs, values, and well-being of students and educators throughout the process of AI integration, helping to ensure technology enhances—not replaces—human connection and judgment. Staff receive role-specific training before gaining access to Copilot Chat, supporting safe, responsible, and effective use. 

We just wanted to have that human approach. We want to make sure that it’s human centered, with human oversight.

Katelyn Schoenhofer, AI specialist, Wichita Public Schools, United States

When a school adopts Copilot Chat, educators and staff begin with practical training before gradually progressing to more advanced uses—a phased approach shaped by early experiences. This structured rollout helps to build confidence and encourages experimentation, especially in areas like special education and academic resource development. 

WPS’s intentional approach to AI literacy and professional development strategy helps empower educators and administrators to use tools like Copilot Chat confidently to improve instruction, streamline operational processes, and enhance student outcomes.

AI is going to enhance our lives. It’s going to change our lives. And so how do we make sure that we understand that and be methodical, and you know, just intentional about it?

Katelyn Schoenhofer, AI specialist, Wichita Public Schools, United States

To help your team build competency with Copilot, explore the AI for educators learning path. It provides guidance on how to use AI tools responsibly and effectively in educational settings.

Practical AI use cases in education

Lesson planning and instructional support

Educators in WPS have embraced Copilot Chat for the assistance it provides in efficient lesson planning and increasing student engagement. Copilot Chat supports differentiated instruction, facilitates creative brainstorming, and helps adapt content to student interests, supporting accessible learning. WPS educators are using Copilot Chat to customize lessons based on student interests—for example, using pop culture themes to make math concepts like ratios more relatable.

The WPS AI team has extended this even further by developing a collection of custom agents—AI assistants designed to help with specific tasks. These agents assist educators in innovating further by enhancing brainstorming and fostering dialogue to generate meaningful instructional ideas. They identified special education as an area of opportunity for innovation. Special education teams now use a custom agent to help Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) meet both legal requirements and each student’s unique needs.

In practice: Special education teams also use the custom agent to translate IEP accommodation justifications into plain language that educators can use to help parents and caregivers understand complex concepts—a game changer for supporting student success.

Explore more possibilities with the Copilot Scenario Library for education, a collection of real-world examples that demonstrate how educators and leaders can easily use AI to assist with everyday tasks.

Operational and administrative benefits

Outside of the classroom, administrators have also integrated Microsoft 365 Copilot into their workflow to help improve everything from daily tasks to communication to marketing. Leaders and staff throughout the district use Copilot for a range of tasks to help increase their creativity and efficiency—a more recent and evolving use case that extends AI’s impact beyond instruction. Here are some common ways that WPS administrators use Copilot: 

• Marketing material – Improve branding and storytelling for district marketing materials like press releases and flyers, while honing communication and marketing skills.
• Communication efficiency – Analyze emails and provide a list of prioritized action items.
• Data insights – Streamline online enrollment by merging different enrollments into one system, with finance and student information collaboration.
• IT efficiency – Accelerate development timelines for WPS app developers.

I’m seeing that principals love the fact that Microsoft 365 Copilot will read their email and give them action items. That alone, they are saying, wait, this is going to be so much easier.

Dyane Smokorowski, Coordinator of Digital Literacy, Wichita Public Schools, United States

In practice: Dickson, CIO, created a custom agent that drafts detailed Board of Education agendas by uploading simple notes or outlines, streamlining the process and ensuring that all important topics are covered efficiently. What seemed like a small innovation has led to enhanced time savings and eased the burden of this required, repetitive task for Dickson.

Community and family engagement

WPS is using Microsoft Education’s AI tools, including Copilot, to help deepen family and community connections by enhancing communication and collaboration. At one school, a principal used Copilot to brainstorm creative ways for educators to participate in a school talent show. Copilot worked across her institution’s Microsoft 365 environment and pulled together information from OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and more to provide contextually relevant assistance.

A group of educators at another school used Copilot Chat to help brainstorm and plan engaging activities for an upcoming family engagement event. These are some of the newest ways WPS educators and leaders are exploring AI’s potential—using Copilot as a thought partner to generate ideas tailored to their needs and circumstances, while saving precious time and energy.

Additionally, the district AI leadership team is developing an agent that will help answer parent and caregiver questions around AI and its role in learning. They’re also exploring the use of custom agents to support enrollment, event planning, and policy questions—making it easier for families to stay informed and engaged.

In practice: Copilot Chat can help your team plan events, too. Use Copilot Chat to help brainstorm concepts, draft agendas, develop communication strategies, and design social media flyers for your event. 

Embracing the use of AI in education

At WPS, AI is more than a tool—it’s a catalyst to help improve educational, administrative, and operational processes. With a strong foundation in AI literacy and professional learning, WPS is enhancing staff communication and creating more personalized learning experiences. Their roadmap includes building custom AI tools to deepen insights into student learning, boost digital literacy, and improve accessibility for all students.

The district’s AI leadership team shares their practical tips to guide your own AI journey:

Start with the sticking points. Every school or district has unique challenges—identifying where breakdowns occur helps clarify where AI can make the greatest impact. “Look at the sticking points that you struggle with the most,” says Smokorowski, “Where’s the breakdown?” She encourages teams to focus on real, everyday challenges. “Addressing those sticking points gives the why on what we’re doing.”  

Build collective expertise. AI can play a pivotal role in helping teams build the skills and perspectives needed to tackle complex projects. Solving challenges around data, privacy, and analytics requires shared knowledge across your team. “When you can have a higher level of expertise for every person who works around you,” says Dickson, “[imagine] how much better we can make any organization.” Upskilling your team with AI can lead to meaningful improvements across your school or district.

I think what AI gives you is a perspective that you didn’t know before… and so you can constantly fail. I can ask questions that I might think are stupid, but AI is never going to tell me I’m stupid.

Rob Dickson, Chief Information Officer, Wichita Public Schools, United States

Recognize both the simplicity and significance. For any district exploring AI, it’s important to balance the ease of use with a thoughtful understanding of its deeper, long-term impact. “There’s a simplicity to the use of AI,” suggests Schoenhofer, “but that doesn’t mean the impacts are simple—they’re astounding, and we’re only beginning to understand them.” She recommends educators not to view AI as an “easy button,” but as a powerful tool with far-reaching potential in education and beyond.

Find joy in the journey. No matter the technology, education is ultimately about people—finding joy in helping students succeed makes every challenge worth it. “Find joy in the work,” says Smokorowski “Education is hard, but it’s rewarding. We get into this job so we can see young people exceed their own expectations. This tool helps me design [for] that.” 

AI is already making a difference in educational settings like Wichita Public Schools—enhancing learning, boosting efficiency, and supporting inclusive education. Start your journey with Copilot Chat today to uncover how AI can transform teaching and learning in your school.

The post Wichita Public Schools’ AI adoption: How it started, how it’s going appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

A blueprint for AI-ready campuses

IDC identified six common foundational characteristics of advanced AI strategies in Higher Education:

Differentiators – Rather than only focusing on AI-powered automation for efficiency and cost savings, institutions are identifying unique areas where AI can help differentiate and innovate. According to Michael Barker, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and CIO at UNC, “Our goal is to use AI to enhance our research capabilities and make groundbreaking discoveries that highlight our strengths and differentiate us.”

Guardrails – Institutions are initially focusing on creating guidelines for responsible use and moving toward governance in parallel. Jill Albin-Hill, Deputy CIO of Auburn University, notes, “Our guidelines allow for flexibility and innovation while ensuring that ethical standards are upheld.”

Collaborative Communities – Fostering collaboration, a culture of experimentation, and knowledge sharing helps drive AI initiatives forward. Ruben Mancha, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Babson College, states, “At Babson College, our AI Generator group is a key driver of innovation, providing a platform for our community to collaborate, share best practices, and explore new AI applications.”

Vendor Partnerships – Partnering with a diverse set of technology vendors with advanced AI capabilities and offerings helps institutions access cutting-edge AI tools and expertise. For example, the white paper cites, “Georgia Tech’s AI strategy is deeply intertwined with its partnerships, particularly with major industry players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA.”

Change Management and Training – Providing comprehensive, ongoing training programs to ensure that all stakeholders, at all levels of the institution, are comfortable and proficient with AI tools is essential. Dr. Asim Ali, Executive Director at Auburn University, remarks, “Our goal is to provide the best environment on campus for students, professional staff, and faculty to learn about different resources, tools, and ideas and to think critically about their impact on society.”

Leadership – Effective AI leadership requires both top-down and bottom-up, grassroots innovation. Christopher Clemens, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at UNC, says, “We want to set the example of what we want AI to do for our institution and give them the tools, skills, and encouragement they need to bring that vision to life.”

Recommendations for advancing AI strategy

The white paper also outlines critical strategic, organizational, process, and technological recommendations to shape and advance AI strategy in higher education. A few highlights include:

• Align AI investments with the institution’s broader strategic vision – Patty Patria, CIO of Babson College, noted, “We have intense interest and demand coming from all areas of the institution. So, we take care to work very closely with everyone to gather feedback, understand what their needs are, and build tools and solutions for them. AI is a strategic capability in our broader toolset to achieve our larger goals.”
• Invest in AI for all – democratize access to diverse AI tools by ensuring all have access to AI resources and innovation.
• Create a flexible and adaptive strategy – adopt an iterative approach, allowing for quick pivots and adjustments based on what works and what doesn’t.
• Measure impact and success – establish clear metrics to ensure alignment to institutional goals and delivery of desired outcomes.
• Foster inclusive decision-making and stakeholder engagement – encourage collaboration across departments, including those who may be skeptical of AI, and ensure that diverse perspectives are considered.
• Allow time and space for AI adoption – Pascal Van Hentenryck at Georgia Tech shared, “We need to balance the urgency of adopting AI with the need to provide a supportive environment where everyone can learn and experiment at their own pace.”
• Ensure AI-ready data – establishing a robust data management strategy is essential for effective AI implementation. As Leo Howell said, “Building strong data engineering teams is crucial for ensuring that our AI models are trained on high-quality, reliable data.”
• Prioritize privacy and security – implement data protection measures, ensure compliance, design AI systems that safeguard sensitive data from the outset.

Explore more insights from leading institutions

Enhancing learning, research, and operations with Microsoft 365 Copilot

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University is exploring AI to advance business education, career services, and academic research. In an initial study, professors found that students using Microsoft 365 Copilot saw performance improve by 10% and time to complete the task at hand was reduced by 40%.² Students felt that Copilot helped build confidence and prepare for their future careers. Career coaches agreed and have used Copilot Chat to provide more tailored guidance and spend more time engaging students on a one-to-one basis.

At Miami Dade College, leaders implemented AI-powered assistants through Microsoft Copilot Studio, which led to a 15% increase in pass rates and a 12% decrease in dropout rates. They’re also exploring opportunities at every level of the institution and finding benefits for staff in removing administrative burdens, improving work quality, and increasing productivity. Read the Miami Dade College story.

Leaders at the University of South Carolina knew that AI was going to be life changing, but knew they needed to better understand the opportunities first and began working with their first cohort. They received an eight out of ten satisfaction score on surveys, expedited literature reviews, provided more support for students, and prioritized data protection. Watch the University of South Carolina video.

Since our initial story on the University of South Florida, they’ve continued to improve services and efficiencies with AI. Watch their latest video on how they’re using AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio to spend more time on solving important challenges, reducing the number of help desk tickets, ensuring immediate support, and making their information AI-ready.

Unlocking new opportunities for AI innovation

Institutions like Oregon State University, Auburn University, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville are employing Microsoft Security Copilot and their students in their security operations centers (SOCs) to combat cybercrime. This approach offers students valuable hands-on experience while helping universities address cybersecurity workforce shortages and the need to build deeper expertise. These initiatives are part of their ongoing journeys as AI-ready campuses.

At Singapore Management University (SMU), Microsoft Security Copilot has led to a significant increase in efficiency, decrease in response times, and greater automation in containment efforts. It eases the workload for SMU’s security teams through AI-powered log correlation, automated playbooks, and real-time threat detection. Edward Panangian Pasaribu, Head of Cybersecurity at SMU, also noted that the “interface is intuitive, which makes everything easier for our security analysts when interacting with the system.” Learn more about their approach to Zero Trust and safeguarding research.

Microsoft Research is pioneering the integration of AI into research processes, driving innovation and efficiency. By using, infusing, and diffusing AI, they are transforming traditional workflows, accelerating scientific discovery, and enhancing AI-human interactions. Their initiatives, such as the Accelerating Foundation Models Research program, aim to democratize AI research, ultimately benefiting both academic researchers and society.

Northern Arizona University is using Willow’s digital twin technology to increase facility efficiencies, manage consumption of resources, and move their sustainability goals forward. They’re now able to bring data together from thousands of sensors to see what’s going on at any given moment and optimize traffic, facilities, and energy with measurable traction.

Building advanced solutions with Azure AI Foundry

Macquarie University developed Virtual Peer, an AI-powered chatbot, to provide students with real-time, around-the-clock academic and administrative support. They conducted a pilot study with 1,400 students and found that 80% of messages were sent outside of standard university operating hours, with a dramatic spike in usage before the final exam. Results also showed students’ exam scores went up by nearly 10% and 72% of survey respondents stated they would be very disappointed if they lost access to Virtual Peer.

The University of Waterloo introduced JADA, short for Job Aggregator Digital Assistant, to streamline the job search process for co-op students. JADA helps consolidate job boards and provides real-time support to enhance student access to job opportunities and ease the application process. It also uses AI to determine strong matches with their skills and knowledge, and tools like JADA are paired with training programs to help students build the skills they’ll need in the future of work.

Leading universities—including UCLA Anderson School of Management, London Business School, California State University Fullerton, the University of Maryland, and Case Western Reserve University—have already adopted Cloudforce’s nebulaONE® platform, deployed securely on Microsoft Azure, to anchor their campus-wide AI strategies. By wrapping Azure OpenAI Service in a private, institution-controlled environment, nebulaONE lets each school spin up custom-branded chatbots, research assistants, and administrative agents while satisfying stringent Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.

Cloudforce backs the technology with workshop-driven design services, guiding institutions to launch “AI for everyone” environments or zoom in on high-value pilots. Their flexible architecture also lets stakeholders toggle among leading foundation models—from OpenAI’s GPT-4o to Meta’s Llama 3—so faculty, staff, and students can select the ideal engine for nearly every academic or operational use case.

Get started with Microsoft Education

• AI in Education – Learn more about AI in Education including relevant products, stories, resources, FAQs, and more.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit – Designed to guide school leaders through the process of planning for and integrating AI across the institution.
• Cloud AI Adoption e-book – Structured guidance that prepares organizations to adopt AI at scale, beginning with key operational processes for creation of a holistic AI strategy. 
• More Education stories – Read additional examples of how institutions are achieving more with Microsoft Education.

¹ IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, A Blueprint for AI-Ready Campuses: Strategies from the Frontlines of Higher Education, #US53344625, May 2025

² Dennis, A., Kim, A., & Yan, G. (2024, November 20). Copilot in Education: Impact on the Student Learning Experience. Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

The post AI strategies from the frontlines of higher education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Transforming education with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

We believe there’s an opportunity to empower everyone with a copilot and transform education experiences with agents. That’s why we offer agents in Copilot Chat, available at no additional cost when referencing data from the web and on a pay-as-you-go basis when using institutional data. Agents are also available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

You can build an agent using natural language and additional configuration in Copilot Chat or get started with an agent template. With Copilot Chat, agents can be accessed and managed directly in the chat and enterprise data protection helps keep your experience safe and secure.

Using Copilot Chat agents in education

Whether you’re building a custom agent or taking advantage of agent templates, there are numerous ways that agents in Copilot Chat can make a positive impact on your day-to-day activities. Here are some of the ways eligible students, educators, administrators, and leaders can benefit from agents in Copilot Chat:

• Provide immediate support – Answer commonly asked questions using your data sources and help navigate institutional resources in real-time. Agents can help troubleshoot IT issues, provide guidance from resources on school policies, programs, or processes like enrollment.
• Generate tailored content – Create the materials you need based on your instructions and reference resources whether it’s a study guide, lesson plan, professional development, or school communication. Upload your files like standards, curriculum documents, guidelines, or requirements to tailor your agent for the task.
• Test your knowledge – Build agents to help students succeed in their classes by designing them with specific instructions and materials. Agents can then support students as they study with custom quizzes, feedback, and practice through simulations of relevant real-world scenarios.
• Uncover and dive into insights – Instantly summarize, analyze, and explore insights across multiple files or a folder of knowledge. Understand and ask questions about trends in your data across areas like student performance, finance, operations, or community feedback.

Using agent templates in Copilot Chat

Microsoft 365 Copilot comes with a set of agent templates that are ready to use and perform a wide range of tasks to help support you. Here are a few existing agents that are ready to customize and use:

• Idea Coach – Enhance brainstorming with fun and engaging agenda and action plans.
• Prompt Coach – Create effective Copilot Chat prompts.
• Writing Coach – Refine your writing to boost effectiveness.
• Career Coach – Receive personalized career advice, goals, and action plans.

Select “Get agents” in the right-side panel of Copilot Chat to find agent templates, including the ones above. You can search for specific agents or simply browse the library within Copilot Chat to find additional agents that work for you. Additionally, your institution may have created tailored agents for you to use.

Creating agents in Copilot Chat

It’s quick and easy to create customized agents in Copilot Chat. Here’s how to start building your own agents:

1. Create an agent. Select “Create an agent” in the right-side pane of Copilot Chat to open the agent builder. You can create and name your new agent or choose a provided template.
2. Define your agent’s instructions. Use the chat to describe what you’d like your agent to do. You should also include the style and tone it should use while completing tasks. For example: “Create an agent to help students in my Intro to Business Comms study and prepare for the midterm.”
3. Configure your agent. If you’d like to make improvements or changes to your agent, you can add documents, data, and files to its knowledge base. You can also edit your agent’s instructions at any time to adjust its responses.
4. Publish the agent. When you’re happy with your agent’s output, you can publish your agent for you and others in your institution to use. As the needs of your institution change, you can continue to adjust your agent or create new ones for different purposes.

Here are some ways you can use your customized agents:

• Answering frequently asked questions.
• Helping new students navigate school resources.
• Giving feedback based on existing rubrics or frameworks.
• Explore insights from data in accessible ways.
• Tailoring lessons to specific content, standards, or student needs.

You can keep agents up to date by selecting “Create an agent” to open the agent builder and expanding the drop-down menu at the top to select “View all agents.” This will allow you to view, edit, and share agents within your institution and ensure they’re still meeting your needs.

Managing agents in Copilot Chat for IT admins

The key to successful agent management for IT administrators is understanding how agent usage is measured and billed. Each agent’s usage is tracked by the number of messages they handle, and the total cost for your institution is calculated based on the sum of these messages.

For IT admins, purchasing messages is straightforward. You can buy them through the Copilot Studio meter in Microsoft Azure, which offers a convenient pay-as-you-go option. Once you’ve got your messages, Microsoft Power Platform admin center is where you’ll set up billing and assign message capacity to Copilot Chat and individual agents.

It’s important to note that agent message usage can vary. Factors such as an agent’s complexity, how frequently they’re used, and the specific features they employ all play a role in determining their message count. See a quick walkthrough of agent management within Microsoft Power Platform admin center and learn more about agent management.

Agent innovation in education

Agents in Copilot Chat offer ways to enhance and streamline your daily activities. You can build one using natural language or start with an agent template. Managing agents directly within Copilot Chat is designed to be seamless, and enterprise data protection helps keep your experience secure. Discover how agents can provide immediate support by answering common questions and navigating institutional resources, generate tailored content like study guides and lesson plans, and uncover valuable insights from your data.

We’re excited to continue developing resources to support your use of AI in education. Whether you choose to create custom agents or use templates, Copilot Chat helps to ensure a secure and efficient way to make AI work for you. Explore how using agents in education can support your unique needs and help free up your time to focus on what matters most.

The post Empowering everyone with agents in Copilot Chat appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

To maximize AI’s potential, it’s important to first develop cohesive strategies that align AI adoption with the core mission of your institution, ensuring long-term impact and responsible evolution. Microsoft is committed to helping you define your institutional strategy and innovate with confidence. The Cloud AI Adoption for Higher Education e-book contains structured guidance that prepares organizations to adopt AI at scale, beginning with key operational processes for creation of a wholistic AI strategy. This includes establishing institutional AI leadership, aligning your plan to institutional goals, prioritizing the most valuable AI use cases, and finally identifying the right AI technology strategy for the institution.

Let’s take a closer look at how institutions can develop an AI strategy that aligns with their specific needs and capabilities, reviewing key considerations to help strike the right balance between speed, simplicity, and customization in achieving their desired outcomes.

Key considerations for AI strategy in higher education

When defining an AI technology strategy, you’ll likely need to weigh trade-offs between ease of implementation and the flexibility to build fully customized solutions. Low-code tools provide speed and accessibility, ideal for fast deployment and integration with existing systems but offer limited customization.

Pro-code solutions, on the other hand, enable deep innovation through advanced orchestration, data governance, and full code access but take more time and technical expertise to configure. Comprehensive AI solutions from Microsoft span this spectrum, offering tools that support both rapid deployment as well as deeply customizable development paths.

Deploy AI quickly with out-of-the-box tools

You can empower faculty and staff with AI tools that require minimal technical expertise or setup. Out-of-the-box solutions like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat can make it easy to boost individual productivity with AI-powered support for writing, analyzing, and collaborating across apps in Microsoft 365. These tools can also streamline workflows in areas like security and operations, embedding intelligence directly into the applications faculty and staff already use. For more tailored experiences, you can extend and customize capabilities using the graphical development environment in Microsoft Copilot Studio—building role-specific agents that address unique campus needs with ease.

Check out how the University of South Florida (USF) drives innovation and acceleration with Copilot.

Customize AI solutions to fit your institution’s goals

You can tailor AI adoption to your specific goals using Microsoft Platform as a service (PaaS) solutions, choosing between fully managed services for ease of deployment or infrastructure-level control for advanced research. With tools like Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, you can build and deploy custom AI agents or applications—without the burden of managing infrastructure.

For example, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) can power AI agents that support tutoring and research by synthesizing timely information into clear, accurate explanations. You can also fine-tune generative AI models to personalize learning and streamline workflows, while maintaining privacy, security, and responsible use through Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety. These flexible options empower universities to innovate at scale and align AI capabilities with academic, operational, and research priorities.

Discover how Babson College meets the demands of its evolving strategic goals through Azure AI.

Accelerate research and scale AI workloads with full control

Microsoft infrastructure as a service (IaaS) AI solutions empower you to take on compute-intensive workloads using scalable, cost-effective cloud resources—enabling reproducible research while helping to manage AI computing costs. Tools like Microsoft Azure CycleCloud, Batch, and Kubernetes support model training and orchestrate complex workloads for advanced simulations, including climate modeling and biomedical research.

These platforms also improve collaboration and data sharing across institutions, enabling analytics and AI-powered insights in fields such as genomics, materials science, and social research. Built on trusted and secure cloud infrastructure, these solutions support compliance with regulatory standards—allowing researchers to innovate efficiently and responsibly.

Learn how the University of Nottingham optimizes AI computing costs while ensuring research reproducibility through accessing AI infrastructure.

Combine solutions to match your goals and resources

It’s important to acknowledge that the right AI technology strategy isn’t necessarily one path, but potentially the right combination of paths. In many cases, the most effective strategy combines multiple approaches—software as a service (SaaS), PaaS, or IaaS solutions. A hybrid strategy allows you to balance speed and scalability with customization and control—selecting ready-to-use tools for common tasks while developing tailored solutions for high-impact use cases. Trade-offs may need to be made between out-of-the-box value and deep customization, depending on the paths you select. Microsoft AI solutions give you the freedom to mix and match capabilities in ways that best support the mission, resources, and technical readiness of your institution.

Begin your AI journey today in higher education

As AI becomes an integral part of the educational landscape, the question for leaders in higher education is no longer if to adopt AI—but how to do so in a way that aligns with your institution’s values and long-term goals. By taking a thoughtful and responsible approach, you can harness AI not only to enhance learning and operations but also to create a lasting competitive advantage. Now is the time to chart a strategic course forward. Get started with the Cloud AI Adoption for Higher Education e-book to develop an AI strategy and implementation plan.

Explore these additional resources to learn more:

• Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
• Establish an AI Center of Excellence
• Comprehensive guidance for AI adoption and architecture

The post Best practices for optimizing AI strategy in higher education appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Microsoft and our network of partners can support your journey forward with AI. Unlike many publicly available AI tools, a solution built by a Microsoft partner with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service keeps your AI interactions private, allowing you to stay in control of your institution’s information. It’s also easier to maintain compliance with data privacy laws like Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Microsoft’s commitment to Trustworthy AI means that AI is secure, safe, and private. Students, faculty, and researchers can also select from a wide array of leading models, with popular options from creators such as OpenAI, Meta, DeepSeek, and more, to find the best fit for their use cases.

In a datasheet on accelerating AI innovation, we highlight how our partner Cloudforce has developed the nebulaONE® solution, powered by Azure OpenAI Service, to simplify access to Microsoft’s most advanced generative AI capabilities. Let’s explore how it empowers institutions to achieve more.

How nebulaONE by Cloudforce aims to bring secure AI to all

Many students and faculty are already using generative AI. But as they adopt their own unsecured AI tools, it creates concerns with IT governance, security, privacy, and data protection, and it limits the ability to scale AI throughout the institution. Cloudforce, a Microsoft Supplier of the Year in 2024, has expertise in building AI solutions to address those concerns, as well as over a decade of experience designing and deploying complex infrastructure and cloud-native apps exclusively on Azure. Cloudforce built nebulaONE on Azure to use its built-in security and privacy features, and the company is engaged with dozens of higher education institutions to fulfill its mission of providing secure AI access for all.

A conversational generative AI gateway, nebulaONE allows students, faculty, researchers, and staff to harness cutting-edge AI models to reimagine learning experiences, accelerate research, protect intellectual property, and drive institutional efficiencies in every department. It includes an intuitive, multimodal chat interface for the AI interactions that are familiar to many, and it provides the ability to develop low-code, task-specific AI agents to drive innovation and efficiency across campus. The nebulaONE platform deploys to your Azure environment, so your data remains private, and you gain the compliance and security protections built into Azure AI services.

“We know leaders in higher education are facing pressure to prepare the workforce of tomorrow to succeed with AI, or risk being left behind,” says Cloudforce CEO Husein Sharaf. “We created nebulaONE to address the most pressing needs of educators and students, with a rapid implementation process that securely enables generative AI use at scale. Our campus-wide management layer keeps institutions in the driver’s seat from a cost and governance perspective, while a simple, custom-branded user interface drives user adoption. Our platform provides the foundation for a flexible AI strategy that evolves as new models and capabilities emerge.”

Cloudforce supports institutional leaders wherever you are in your journey, whether that’s exploring AI for the first time or connecting an AI platform to their full data estate. The Cloudforce team can host workshops to help identify early use cases or provide trainings and prompt-a-thons to reinforce best practices and teach you and your colleagues how to develop your own agents. They also offer assistance with change management and strategic communications to drive campus-wide adoption of nebulaONE and the uses that provide the most value for your institution.

The real-world impact of generative AI in higher education

One success story comes from the University of California, Los Angeles, John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management (UCLA Anderson). Leaders at UCLA Anderson had concerns with using public AI platforms, so they looked for a partner who could deliver a secure, private experience that enabled their priority use cases. They chose to adopt nebulaONE because it’s a fully managed platform that deploys in their Azure environment, and within about two months, they launched a generative AI chatbot to support MBA students with their capstone project.

UCLA Anderson leaders sought to develop and deploy a host of AI-powered chatbots for a variety of specific purposes, and Cloudforce validated use cases and provided hands-on training to empower UCLA staff to independently build them with nebulaONE. The school has now deployed bots to help students register for classes and provide feedback on essays, as well as a forthcoming AI-powered agent that will reduce administrative tasks for career coaches so they can spend more time with the school’s 40,000 alumni. Several months after UCLA deployed the platform, monthly active user rates continued to increase rapidly, growing by 485% from December 2024 to January 2025.

UCLA is hardly alone. A growing number of colleges and universities are deploying nebulaONE to harness the power of AI:

• California State University, Fullerton (Cal State Fullerton) now provides secure, university-managed AI for all students through TitanGPT, as the custom-branded platform is known. They have also started exploring use cases for support solutions, like an agent to streamline HelpDesk support and their IT ticketing system.
• London Business School sought to find a cost-effective, scalable AI solution, with access to a variety of AI foundation models. After a brief demo, they quickly began a full deployment to all 6,000 students, faculty, and researchers—the first in the United Kingdom to do so.
• TerpAI, the chatbot built on the nebulaONE platform at the University of Maryland, acts as a digital assistant and educational resource to help faculty and students brainstorm ideas, analyze data, create study guides, develop lesson plans, and more.
• The platform is nicknamed CWRU AI at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where the CRWU community can select between AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o or 3.5 Turbo, Meta’s Llama 3.2, and DeepSeek R1. CWRU AI uses AI reasoning to analyze images, PDFs, Word, and Excel files, and the community can deploy chatbots connected to specific data sources for departments or groups.

Learn more about what’s possible with AI

These examples highlight how leaders in higher education can quickly and securely implement generative AI to enhance student services, academic offerings, and operational efficiency. Ready to deploy AI at your school? Discover how nebulaONE can make AI accessible by downloading the datasheet from Microsoft and Cloudforce.

Learn more about how to get started with these resources:

• Explore the features and benefits of nebulaONE.
• Find out how institutions are reimagining student experiences with Azure OpenAI Service.
• Explore the benefits of powering your institution with Azure.
• Discover the AI learning hub, which includes documentation for adopting AI and trainings to improve AI skills for a variety of roles.

¹ Jenay Robert. 2024 EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study​. Research report. Boulder, CO, US: EDUCAUSE, February 2024.

The post How Microsoft and Cloudforce help institutions innovate with Azure AI appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Aligned with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person on the planet to achieve more, we’re thrilled to announce the Microsoft Student SOC initiative. This initiative includes the Microsoft Student SOC Toolkit and implementation guide as free resources, along with training and certification to assist leaders at high schools and universities in addressing the cybersecurity challenges faced in education.

The Microsoft Student SOC initiative aims to bridge the significant skills gap in the cybersecurity sector and education. These resources provide in-depth training on top-tier AI-powered security products such as Microsoft Security Copilot, Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, and more. These free resources and training can help educators, school staff, and students understand the importance of cybersecurity and how to defend against cyberthreats.

Bridging the cybersecurity skills gap

Two weeks after graduating with a computer science degree in 2024, Cothren started a position as a cybersecurity analyst at Regions Bank, a job he says his SOC experience “absolutely” helped him get. In the SOC, participants work alongside full-time cybersecurity employees on tasks like reviewing incident reports, hunting for cyberthreats, and investigating suspicious online behavior. Student SOC programs like Cothren’s can give students an edge in a competitive job market by providing them with valuable hands-on experience in cybersecurity before they enter the workforce.

Companies really don’t look for students fresh out of college, because cybersecurity is about protecting billion-dollar corporations—their data, their reputation, their integrity… I am very lucky for having had three years of experience.

George Cothren, Auburn University Graduate

Moreover, student SOCs help address a critical need in the job market. With more than 400,000 unfilled cybersecurity roles in the US alone, students can leave their programs well-prepared to combat a nationwide shortage.

Student SOCs provide opportunities for students and universities

Student SOCs are becoming increasingly popular nationwide, largely because of the need for an extra set of hands on security teams. Because institutions handle highly sensitive data and intellectual property, they’re prime targets for cyberthreats.

In fact, cyberattacks on universities are increasing, with a recent Microsoft report finding that the education sector is now the third-most targeted industry for cybercrime globally. While attacks are increasing, IT teams’ budgets remain constrained—making it difficult to combat threats effectively.

That’s where student SOCs can help. With a student SOC, educational institutions can strengthen their cybersecurity defenses while also offering students invaluable hands-on training that equips them with the skills to step confidently into the workforce.

Jay James, the senior cybersecurity operations lead at Auburn University, realized the power of student SOCs early on and established one at Auburn in 2019. “As a higher-ed institution, our number one priority is empowering students for whatever they plan on doing next,” he says. “It’s a win where the students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience and we’re able to utilize those students to help secure the university.”

Students in action

Student SOCs function as educational hubs and operational cybersecurity monitoring units. The centers are typically located on campus, with staffing arranged around student schedules, and participants use the same tools they’re likely to encounter in their careers.

Grace Parrish, a senior at Oregon State University (OSU), gained hands-on experience working with industry-standard automation tools to help the university more efficiently combat cyberattacks. “I like getting to put my hands on some nice enterprise-grade security solutions,” says Parrish. “And I really enjoy working on automation projects. They’re like little puzzles to me.”

Of course, students aren’t thrown into mission-critical tasks alone but rather work alongside full-time staff members for mentorship and oversight. With guidance, they learn to monitor, intercept, and solve real-time cyberattacks. If a serious threat occurs, students escalate it to professional staff while resolving lower-risk incidents independently. Sometimes, they even identify vulnerabilities that professionals might miss.

At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students uncovered “slow burn” issues, seemingly random low-priority incidents that when grouped together point to an emerging problem. According to Chief Technology Officer Matthew Williams, that type of analysis didn’t happen before employing students.

“We unfortunately just used to look at alerts in isolation because of staffing,” he says. “Now we have the resources to look at things at more of a high level and in aggregate that could point to issues that we have otherwise just not paid attention to.”

The Microsoft Student SOC initiative takes student SOCs a step further

In a Microsoft Student SOC, students and schools get access to resources like the Student SOC Toolkit and training tools—while learning industry-leading cybersecurity tools like Security Copilot. Security Copilot can lower the barrier to entry for students interested in joining a SOC by providing a plain language interface. Students can learn on the job while still being a productive member of the SOC team. But Security Copilot isn’t just for beginners. As students become more proficient in their role, Security Copilot grows with them, helping them take on more complex cybersecurity tasks.

[We] are all really excited about using Copilot… A lot of the academic curriculums at OSU, and seemingly everywhere, aren’t really including AI type tools yet, but it’s something that is so forefront to [student’s] careers.

Emily Longman, SOC Manager, Oregon State University

What’s more is that students are guided by a curriculum that helps learners deepen their cybersecurity knowledge while getting hands-on training. The program starts with a course on the foundations of security operations, with students getting an opportunity to earn the Microsoft Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate once completed.

Then, they delve into the foundations of modern SOCs and focus on Threat Protection Engagement and Security AI. To apply their skills, they study core Microsoft security solutions and cloud security, which also prepares them to earn the MS Learn Applied Skills Badge: Configure SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) security operations using Microsoft Sentinel and the Microsoft Sentinel Training LinkedIn Learning Badge.

Gaining real-life experience

After earning the requisite badges, it’s time for hands-on labs with the Microsoft Security Unified SOC Platform and a gamified immersion experience featuring real-world security challenges. The program then culminates with an opportunity for participants to earn Microsoft Certifications like Security, Identity, and Compliance Fundamentals (SC-900) the Microsoft SOC Analyst Certification (SC-200). They can even obtain ACE (American Council on Education) college credit, helping them demonstrate their knowledge to future employers.

Longman notes that students feel their SOC experience is excellent preparation for the workforce. “They’re so glad they’re working with us because it’s such a good learning opportunity. It’s a really good compliment [sic] to the academics that they’re getting here. They’re really excited about… using tools like Microsoft Security Copilot. It’s definitely going to be something that will be used in industry and continue to grow throughout their careers.”

In addition to supporting a school’s core mission to prepare students for the future, the program benefits the institutions’ security posture. With training and certifications from Microsoft, high schools and universities can stay current with modern cyberthreats, ensuring their student SOC remains agile and responsive to an ever-evolving cyber landscape. They can also collaborate with experienced security partners specializing in student SOCs for expert guidance in setting up a SOC program that’s right for their institution, minimizing missed alerts, and providing an extra layer of security oversight.

Join us in shaping the future of cybersecurity

Reflecting on her experience, student Emily MacPherson is grateful she joined the student SOC at OSU. “I feel like I’m ahead compared to the average sophomore in college,” she says. “You should definitely do it.”

If you’re a university leader who’s interested in empowering the next generation of cybersecurity leaders, learn more about the Microsoft Student SOC initiative. Get started with the implementation guide and initial training paths by downloading them for free into your learning management system (LMS). Learn more about Microsoft Student SOC certifications by downloading the PDF. For additional information, you can also email Microsoft Student SOC support or contact your Microsoft Account Representative.

If you’re a student who’s interested in starting a student SOC at your school, share this blog with your university’s IT team and join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors LinkedIn group.

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