SUNY and NYU forge landmark partnership to launch Higher Education Design Lab
January 13, 2026
The largest private non-profit university and the largest, comprehensive public college and university system in the U.S. are joining forces to evaluate and accelerate innovations that will prepare graduates to thrive in an ever-shifting social and economic landscape.
New York – The State University of New York (SUNY) and New York University (NYU) – the largest comprehensive public college and university system in the United States and the largest private non-profit university – announced the launch of The Higher Education Design Lab, a landmark research partnership to evaluate and accelerate innovations in higher education. By rigorously testing how new and old university programs shape lifelong outcomes, beginning with their own campuses, the NYU-SUNY Lab aims to help the entire sector adapt to meet the urgent needs of graduates in a landscape transformed by AI and other technological and cultural influences.
"Transforming the sector to meet the moment is mission critical," said SUNY Chancellor King. "The strength of this partnership is that it spans two of the largest and most diverse higher education systems in the nation. That gives us a rare ability to study new and old initiatives across institutions of every size, mission, and geographic setting. By evaluating practices in these varied contexts, the Lab will help identify which innovations are effective, for whom, and under what conditions – insights that higher education urgently needs to prepare the next generation for the world they will inherit."
"Many colleges and universities are testing new programs or invigorating old practices to help students thrive as they encounter a transformed workforce and cultural landscape. But our improvements are only as good as the insights we gain into what works and what doesn't," said NYU President Linda Mills. "To succeed today, we must equip students with the skills needed to collaborate with others who hold different perspectives, to think critically, and to follow the evidence – especially when it challenges their assumptions. This is what higher education has bestowed on students for centuries. It is our duty to evolve so this remains true for centuries to come. This is the goal of the Lab."
Through the joint study of NYU and SUNY programs and policies, the Lab will develop metrics and frameworks that can be adopted by other colleges and universities so that as the sector evolves, it does so based on evidence. The Lab's first area of exploration will include NYU's Perspectives programming and SUNY's service and civics agenda, which were selected to prepare students with the collaboration and dialogue skills needed to be successful in the workforce and civic life.
Strategic priorities of the Lab include the rigorous evaluation of:
- Dialogue initiatives to understand the impact that university institutes and centers, speaker series, co-curricular debate programming, dialogue training initiatives, and exposure to divergent views have on student engagement, collaboration, confidence in discourse, and critical thinking.
- Career Readiness to uncover which career preparation programs are most effective, such as employer partnerships, to support the strongest return on investment for both students and employers.
- First-year and orientation programming analyzing the impact of required versus optional onboarding experiences – including civics, dialogue and community-building modules – on critical discourse, leadership skills, and student well-being.>
- Teaching and learning innovations to examine instructional toolkits, faculty development programs, and co-curricular and faculty led innovations.
- Experiential and community-based learning to understand how high-impact educational practices, including service learning, civic engagement, study-away experiences and alternative breaks cultivate skills for pluralistic environments, continued engagement across difference, and leadership opportunities.
In its first year, the Lab will establish the governance and leadership structures necessary to begin developing the methodologies and criteria needed to advance its study and assessment of initial research areas. It hopes to invite additional university, research, government and industry partners to participate in advancing higher education's understanding of what experiences, supports and programs best prepare graduates for the AI workforce.
"The next generation of students' lives and education will be profoundly shaped by advancements in AI and other technologies," said Dr. Angela Graves, SUNY Civil Discourse and Civic Education and Engagement Fellow, and Alfred State SUNY College of Technology Associate Professor in the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences. "As technology and culture continue to evolve, higher education must evolve with it. This partnership between SUNY and NYU will allow for more opportunities to conduct innovative research so higher education is well equipped to meet the needs of future graduates."
"At its core, the Higher Education Design Lab will be a research platform grounded in academic rigor, transparency, and independence, designed to help us understand what truly strengthens student learning on campuses," said Mindy Tarlow, Senior Fellow at NYU's Marron Institute. "The Lab's role will be to listen, test ideas, share what works and what doesn't,"
"Universities across the country are investing in civic education and civil discourse programs that help students engage across differences – work that is both encouraging and also urgently needed," said Jonathan Haidt, the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU's Stern School of Business and author of the bestselling book The Anxious Generation. "The next step is understanding which of these efforts will provide a return on investment. The Higher Education Design Lab will break new ground by evaluating what works and what doesn't, helping institutions strengthen their commitments to evidence-based innovation."
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Holly Liapis
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