The Jobs of Tomorrow: What BRICS Universities Are Betting On

What skills will become essential as technology transforms the world? How are BRICS countries building their own systems for preparing the workforce of the future? And why are university networks becoming part of a new infrastructure for international cooperation? TV BRICS explores these questions.

Human capital: a strategic resource

In the twenty-first century, a country’s competitiveness depends not only on its access to natural resources or production capacity, but also on its ability to develop its own talent and scientific expertise.

Human capital is the foundation of technological sovereignty and long-term economic growth. It is shaped above all by education—and people’s abilities become an asset only when they are put to productive use. Human capital also means the capacity to create jobs, institutions and entirely new fields of activity.

The World Economic Forum forecasts that automation will displace 92 million jobs worldwide by 2030, while creating 170 million new ones. The vast majority of these new roles will require skills at the intersection of engineering, data analysis and the natural sciences.

The school systems of BRICS countries account for around a third of the global education landscape. Education is a key driver of sustainable development, social equality and technological progress. As the world undergoes profound change, it is increasingly seen as a means of shaping the future.

For BRICS countries, with a combined population of 3.9 billion, this transformation is no abstract challenge: it is a matter of economic sovereignty. Their response is a far-reaching reconfiguration of higher education. The fundamental shift is that universities are no longer viewed simply as part of the social sphere. They are increasingly regarded as strategic infrastructure—on a par with energy, logistics and digital platforms.

Kirill Kostin, Director of the Knowledge Diplomacy Centre at the Russian State University for the Humanities and an expert in international relations, BRICS institutional development, public diplomacy, strategic communications and futurology, agrees:

“Universities are becoming more than places where knowledge is passed on. They are hubs that bring together governments’ strategic priorities, business needs and emerging technologies. In this sense, they are becoming part of BRICS’ strategic infrastructure. Through international network programmes, joint laboratories and departments, academic mobility and support for youth initiatives, universities help develop human capital and build lasting connections among researchers and civic leaders across countries.”

Educational cooperation is expanding alongside the restructuring of the global economy. Longer production chains, the digitalisation of industry and a growing number of joint infrastructure projects all require specialists able to work across national jurisdictions. As a result, workforce development is gradually moving beyond the remit of national education policy to become part of the international economic agenda.

In 2025, education systems around the world faced a series of pressures at once: teacher shortages, heavier demands on schools, increasingly complex demographic trends, labour-market pressures, rising inequality and the rapid advance of digital technologies.

Education specialisation as a structural advantage for BRICS

Each country’s national priorities shape the structure of its education programmes. Yet beneath the diversity of approaches, a common pattern is emerging: BRICS education systems are moving not towards uniformity, but towards complementarity. Although some fields still overlap, the broader trend is for countries to build centres of expertise in areas where they already have established strengths.

Respect for each country’s sovereignty and traditions is a cornerstone of this cooperation. For BRICS, this means that national education models are not replaced by a single template; instead, they provide the foundation for shared efforts to develop human capital. Educational ties among BRICS countries—rooted in an understanding of one another’s cultures and traditions, which shape individual identity—lay a solid foundation for future relations among the member states.

The scale of BRICS education systems reflects the grouping’s demographic weight. In the 2023–24 academic year, more than a third of the world’s school-age children lived in BRICS countries, and more than 35 per cent of the world’s schools were located there. India has the largest school-age population, at over 365 million, followed by China, with more than 211 million; Brazil, with over 53 million; Russia, with more than 22 million; and South Africa, with around 20 million. This demographic foundation means that education reforms within BRICS can have global significance.

China is pursuing a strategy to become a leading education power. The plan links education reform with technological modernisation, national identity and global influence. According to China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, state-owned enterprises invested 1.1 trillion yuan in research and development in 2025—around 13.7 trillion roubles, Xinhua News Agency, a TV BRICS partner, reports. R&D accounted for 2.86 per cent of their revenue. China has 474 state-level R&D platforms, employing 1.44 million people.

Through its National Education Policy reforms, India aims to raise the proportion of young people with higher-education qualifications to 50 per cent by 2035. The country is seeking to harness its demographic dividend and turn its vast population into a productive force. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is responsible for coordinating India’s national skills framework, giving the link between education and the labour market a formal place at the highest level of government.

In Russia, the Priority 2030 programme is building a network of research universities integrated with the real economy. Brazil is investing in agricultural technology, drawing on its distinctive expertise in tropical farming as food security becomes one of the world’s most pressing challenges. The UAE is investing in space and artificial intelligence to diversify its economy. South Africa is strengthening training in critical minerals, essential to the energy transition. Ethiopia is developing technical education to support industrialisation and the growth of industrial parks.

A report by the BRICS Russia Expert Council and the Institute of Education at the Higher School of Economics argues that the diversity of BRICS education systems is a source of strength. Difference can become a driver of progress, helping to create education models that are flexible, resilient and equitable. This experience may prove useful not only to BRICS countries, but also to others seeking to rethink school education in light of their own social, cultural and institutional realities.

This distribution of specialisations helps countries avoid duplicating research capacity and focus resources where they already have national advantages. A distributed model of workforce development is taking shape across BRICS, with universities beginning to function as links in a shared knowledge chain. In effect, the aim is to build systems for transferring multidisciplinary knowledge and to develop innovation ecosystems around university consortia—a goal set out in the strategic documents of leading institutions.

Behind these efforts lies a shared understanding: higher-education cooperation is becoming a key driver of long-term scientific and technological integration among BRICS countries. It brings together the training of people who, 15 years from now, may be responsible for managing the grouping’s critical infrastructure. In this model, joint education programmes can work much like industrial supply chains: an engineer is trained in one country, completes a research placement in another, and sees their work applied in a third. Each stage becomes part of a shared process—shortening the journey from idea to technology and distributing costs among the partners.

Russia’s experience offers one example. Efforts are under way to bring greater industry focus back into bachelor’s, specialist and master’s programmes, taking regional conditions and the production profile of local enterprises into account. This approach helps prepare graduates for local labour markets and strengthen regional human capital, rather than losing it to major cities.

India, meanwhile, has invested in training engineers at scale. Its network of 23 Institutes of Technology has become a global brand. Pharmaceutical clusters in Hyderabad and Pune have helped make the country one of the world’s largest producers of pharmaceutical ingredients. According to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the country’s combined exports of goods and services reached US$860.09 billion in 2025—around 71.8 trillion roubles—up 4.22 per cent year on year. IT and business services dominate the export mix, accounting for 55 per cent of services exports.

South Africa has a unique resource base, but faces declining science funding. According to its 2025 national report, R&D spending fell to 0.61 per cent of GDP, while business investment in research also declined. This creates a risk of dependence on foreign technologies in a sector vital to the global energy transition.

The UAE has established the world’s first specialised university devoted to artificial intelligence and is developing its space capabilities. Ethiopia is building a technical education system to support industrialisation.

Technology chains and the skills of the future

If national specialisation determines which skills are developed within individual countries, the next question is how those skills will fit into the shared production and technology chains of the BRICS grouping.

The future labour market will be shaped less by individual professions than by technological value chains. The main challenge is not people competing with artificial intelligence, but skilled workers who can use AI competing with those who cannot. Technology does not simply eliminate jobs; it changes the skills they require. The gap between those who can adapt and those who cannot is reshaping demand.

In recent decades, intellectual capital—the ability to generate and absorb innovation—has become a central component of human capital. It is crucial to modernising economies and moving towards new technological systems. In today’s economy, education should be seen not as a cost, but as an investment that helps determine the scale of future growth.

Artificial intelligence is now a central concern in education policy. Yet reforms remain fragmented, and education systems are struggling to keep pace with demand for AI skills. In many countries, technology is advancing faster than schools and teachers can adapt to using it.

China’s approach to AI is based on a centralised national strategy. AI is being integrated across the education system, from school curricula and teacher training to school management and national digital infrastructure. The policy is intended to prepare workers for the digital economy and support the goal of making China a leading education power by 2035. AI is gradually becoming part of education policy worldwide, though countries are taking very different paths—from cautious regulation to a rapid technological race.

“The greatest demand will be in fields such as artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, renewable energy, climate science, biotechnology, engineering, public health and advanced manufacturing. At the same time, entrepreneurship, innovation and global governance will become increasingly important in preparing leaders for a changing international landscape.”

Digital transformation is changing not only the labour market, but education itself. For the first time, digital technologies make it possible to tailor learning pathways, methods and pace to each student. Existing tools can help overcome long-standing constraints: differences in how quickly children in the same class learn, limited choice of teachers, and the lag between the technological equipment available in vocational colleges and that used in industry.

The goal is no longer simply to train workers for individual countries, but to build a shared pool of specialists capable of delivering projects across the BRICS grouping. These people will help determine how quickly technologies are adopted, how productive economies become and how successfully they create high-value products. Increasingly, education programmes are being designed around technological fields rather than individual subjects. This makes it easier to adapt training to economic change while responding to the needs of industry, science and business.

This is the thinking behind the strategies of leading universities seeking to become a new kind of institution—one able to compete internationally. Their priorities include adopting world-class cross-sector technologies and preparing specialists who can work across disciplines.

The BRICS Network University: building a shared skills market

The BRICS Network University, launched in 2015, is a practical expression of this approach. It now brings together dozens of universities across priority fields including energy, computer science, ecology and economics. Its joint master’s programmes and dual-degree arrangements are more than tools for academic exchange: they help lay the foundations for a cross-border market for highly skilled workers.

“Universities today are expected not only to exchange students, but also to develop research, technologies and solutions to shared global challenges together. For BRICS countries, higher-education cooperation is important for building the skilled workforce needed in the digital economy, climate resilience, healthcare and industrial development,” says expert Raymond Matlala.

He believes universities should strengthen their partnerships through joint research, dual-degree programmes, faculty exchanges and digital learning platforms, while working more closely with industry and governments.

“Closer academic cooperation among BRICS countries will also deepen South–South engagement and help generate knowledge that reflects the development priorities of the Global South,” Matlala adds.

Proposed forms of cooperation are reaching beyond government agendas. Young people, too, are showing growing interest in these opportunities. For students and early-career professionals, international education is increasingly seen as part of a future career path.

Kirill Kostin says research confirms that these formats meet young people’s expectations:

“Our studies show that young people are interested in this kind of cooperation. They identify student exchanges, joint education programmes, business and investment as some of the most valuable areas.”

Unlike intergovernmental agreements, university partnerships can build lasting professional ties among research teams, laboratories and future specialists well before major international projects begin. In this model, educational integration does not follow industrial integration; it develops alongside it, laying the groundwork for years to come.

By 2030, the number of students enrolled in joint programmes within BRICS could reach 100,000.

The Network University’s economic impact extends far beyond academia. When research teams from different BRICS countries work together on shared projects over many years, they create the conditions for joint research, technological development and, ultimately, the commercialisation of results. This is how education becomes part of the economy.