A collaborative workshop scene with a woman observing from a table, a man writing on a whiteboard, and a smiling woman presenting a document about team preferences.

The Co-Lab Brief Vol. 12 | July 2026

Designing the Next Season

Welcome to this edition of the Co-Lab Brief. In this issue of The Co-Lab Brief, we ask:

What has a year of Co-Lab inquiry taught us, and where is it pointing?

Over the past year, our pilot season, as we have fondly called it internally, The Co-Lab has become a place to explore the questions emerging across higher education. Through conversations with scholars, practitioners, and institutional leaders, certain themes have surfaced again and again. This issue takes a step back to reflect on what we have learned through our first year and how those conversations are informing the work ahead.

Featured Article

In this article, UDI’s Vice Chair and Managing Director Minu Ipe reflects on The Co-Lab's first year as a period of experimentation, learning, and growing clarity. Drawing on the conversations, partnerships, and questions that emerged throughout the year, she outlines a direction for The Co-Lab's next chapter and introduces three areas that will guide the work of UDI's Global Intelligence Engine:

Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education
Universities as Anchors of National and Regional Talent Ecosystems
Leadership Design and Development

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Throughout The Co-Lab's first year, UDI Fellows returned to a common set of questions about the future of higher education. What is the role of the university today? How should institutions respond to artificial intelligence, changing patterns of learning, and evolving societal expectations? What kinds of leadership are needed to navigate this moment of transformation?

This short video brings together reflections from UDI Fellows across the year's conversations. Their perspectives offer a snapshot of the challenges, opportunities, and design questions shaping higher education today, while pointing toward the work that lies ahead for UDI and the Co-Lab in the upcoming years.

Our Next Edition:

Leadership has become one of the defining questions facing higher education. As institutions navigate growing complexity, technological change, and shifting public expectations, the challenge is not only what universities should become, but how leaders develop the capacity to shape that future.

In our August edition, we introduce Leaders as Designers, a new UDI initiative that explores leadership as an intentional practice of institutional design, informed by ASU's experience and grounded in conversation with leaders across higher education. We ask:

How might higher education change if leadership were understood as an act of design?

July 22, 2026