For decades, choosing a university degree meant asking questions like:
Which subject pays well? Which profession is growing? Which degree gives me the best chance of getting a job?
Artificial intelligence has added a new question:
Will AI be able to do this job before I finish my degree?
That concern isn’t unreasonable.
AI can already write reports, analyse data, generate computer code, create marketing content, research legal questions and automate administrative work that once gave graduates their first step into professional careers.
But that does not mean university degrees are becoming worthless.
The evidence emerging in 2026 suggests something more complicated.
Degrees connected to healthcare, data, cybersecurity, engineering and other areas requiring deep expertise, human judgement or real-world responsibility remain particularly valuable.
At the same time, employers increasingly want graduates who can actually use AI rather than compete against it.
Here are some of the university courses positioned to remain valuable in the AI era.
1. Medicine, Nursing and Healthcare
If there is one field where AI is unlikely to eliminate demand for qualified professionals, it is healthcare.
AI can analyse scans, summarize medical records and assist with diagnosis.
But patients still need clinicians who can examine them, make difficult decisions, perform procedures and accept responsibility for their care.
The latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections illustrate the scale of demand.
Healthcare support occupations are projected to grow 13.3% between 2025 and 2035, while healthcare practitioner and technical occupations are expected to grow 8%.
Together, those two healthcare groups are expected to account for almost one-third of all new US jobs created through 2035.
Nurse practitioners are particularly striking: employment is projected to grow 41% by 2035, with median annual pay of $132,300 in 2025.
2. Data Science, AI and Mathematics
It might seem strange to study technology when AI itself can write code.
But the expansion of AI is actually creating strong demand for people who understand how to build, evaluate and use complex computational systems.
US employment of data scientists is projected to grow about 35% between 2025 and 2035, with median annual wages of roughly $120,230.
Computer and information research scientists are also projected to grow around 22%.
The strongest technology degrees may therefore increasingly include:
- data science
- artificial intelligence
- machine learning
- statistics
- applied mathematics
- computer science
- operations research
But there is an important change.
Simply learning basic coding may no longer provide the advantage it once did.
Statistics Canada found that employment in coding-intensive professions continued growing overall after generative AI emerged, but employment among coding professionals under 30 stagnated between late 2022 and 2025.
3. Cybersecurity
More AI also means more digital risk.
Businesses, hospitals, banks, universities and governments increasingly rely on cloud platforms, connected devices and AI systems.
Every one of those systems creates potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
That makes cybersecurity one of the strongest technology-related study areas.
US information security analyst employment is projected to rise by around 21% between 2025 and 2035, with median annual pay of approximately $129,180.
The World Economic Forum also says new careers are emerging where AI overlaps with data, cybersecurity and human governance.
Degrees combining computer science with cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, network security and AI security may therefore become particularly valuable.
4. Engineering
AI can help design systems.
Someone still has to build the physical world.
Civil engineers design infrastructure.
Electrical engineers work on energy and electronics.
Mechanical engineers build machines.
Biomedical engineers connect healthcare and technology.
Environmental engineers work on increasingly urgent climate and sustainability problems.
US architecture and engineering occupations are projected to grow about 6.8% between 2025 and 2035, almost twice the overall projected employment-growth rate of 3.5%.
Australia provides another encouraging signal.
In its latest employer survey, 87.1% of Australian employers reported overall satisfaction with engineering and related-technology graduates, among the highest levels across major fields of education.
Engineering also combines well with AI.
An engineer who knows how to use AI-powered simulation, modelling and design tools may become more productive rather than obsolete.
5. Economics, Finance and Quantitative Business Degrees
Business degrees will not disappear—but broad qualifications without technical skills could face more pressure.
AI is increasingly capable of producing presentations, financial summaries, market research and routine analysis.
That means students may benefit from courses that add strong quantitative or analytical skills.
Economics stands out.
New UK research published in June 2026 found that graduates earn roughly £100,000 more over their lifetime on average than otherwise similar people who did not attend university.
But the returns differ enormously by subject.
Medicine and economics were among the highest-return degrees, with lifetime earnings benefits approaching £400,000 in some cases.
6. AI Governance, Ethics, Law and Regulation
AI is creating careers that barely existed a few years ago.
Companies increasingly need people to answer questions such as:
Is this AI system biased?
Does it violate privacy laws?
Who is responsible if it makes a harmful decision?
How should employees use AI-generated information?
The World Economic Forum highlights emerging roles including AI governance manager and responsible AI lead, reflecting growing demand at the intersection of technology and human governance.
That could increase the value of interdisciplinary combinations such as:
law + technology
philosophy + AI ethics
public policy + data science
business + AI governance
The future may not belong only to people who can build AI.
It will also need people who understand what AI should be allowed to do.
7. Education and Human-Centred Professions
Teachers, psychologists, counsellors and social workers may use AI heavily—but their work depends on human relationships.
Statistics Canada classifies occupations including doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers among jobs with high potential exposure to AI but also high complementarity with it.
In other words, AI could significantly change these jobs while making the professionals themselves more productive.
This concept is crucial.
A job being highly exposed to AI does not automatically mean it will disappear.
Teachers might use AI tutors.
Doctors might use AI diagnostic systems.
Engineers might use generative design.
The professional still provides context, judgement and accountability.
Does This Mean Humanities Degrees Are Worthless?
No.
But students studying subjects such as English, history, philosophy, communications or creative arts may increasingly need to think about how they convert those degrees into marketable skills.
AI can produce basic text extremely cheaply.
What remains harder to automate is:
- original thinking
- persuasion
- leadership
- cultural understanding
- sophisticated analysis
- interviewing
- judgement
- creativity
- human communication
Students can strengthen humanities degrees by adding skills in AI, data analysis, business, research methods, digital media or another practical specialization.
UK data illustrate why this matters.
Government research finds enormous differences in lifetime financial return between degree subjects, with medicine and economics near the top while some subjects produce much weaker financial returns.
That doesn’t make lower-earning subjects inherently worthless.
It simply means students should understand the financial trade-off before borrowing heavily to study them.
Your Degree Alone May No Longer Be Enough
Perhaps the biggest 2026 trend is that employers increasingly care about what graduates can actually do.
The World Economic Forum reports that 81% of employers expect to prioritize work experience when assessing candidates’ skills.
Even more strikingly, an analysis of more than 10 million UK job postings found jobs requiring AI skills offered an average advertised salary premium of around 23%.
In the same analysis, a master’s degree was associated with about a 13% premium and a bachelor’s degree with roughly 8%.
Degrees Are Still Valuable
The idea that AI is making higher education obsolete is not supported by current labour-market projections.
The latest US projections show occupations requiring a bachelor’s degree for entry are expected to grow 5.6% from 2025 to 2035, compared with just 2% for occupations typically requiring only a high-school diploma.
Bachelor’s-level occupations also had a 2025 median annual wage of about $96,480, compared with $48,050 for high-school-level occupations.
Australia tells a similar story.
Its latest national Graduate Outcomes Survey found 75.4% of undergraduates were in full-time employment four to six months after graduation, while longitudinal data show the rate rose to 91.7% three years after graduation for the tracked cohort.
University education still matters.
But the degree title alone is becoming a weaker guarantee of success.