Nasri Barghouti, CEO and Founder, Liverpool Colleges

Our vision is to offer education to people anywhere, regardless of social background — flexible, affordable and accessible. In practice, that means exporting British education anywhere in the world and giving people access to quality learning. We’ve only been able to achieve that by integrating technology into education and using artificial intelligence to extend our reach and minimize cost, while increasing efficiency and consistency in how we deliver education to our students.

Oxbridge Pathways grew out of our experience running Liverpool Colleges’ face-to-face and hybrid programs. What we found was the difficulty of administering education consistently — inconsistent delivery was affecting how much learners benefited from our system. We knew we needed tools that could deliver the consistency required to meet awarding body and regulatory standards, so quality remained constant throughout. AI has been a genuine advantage here: we now employ AI tutors that deliver high-quality teaching, alongside an MIS system that monitors progress and performance, so we can learn as much about our learners as we teach them. That’s the concept behind Oxbridge Pathways — an integrated, all-in-one solution that gives learners simplicity, confidence, and access anywhere, at an affordable cost.

What’s surprised me most, drawing on my background in education, is the generational shift in how people relate to learning, and the changing caliber employers now look for. Employers are no longer satisfied with a degree alone — many graduates spend years at university gaining theoretical knowledge with very limited practical experience, and that gap has become a real challenge for employers. As a result, the traditional model of education is declining in perceived value. Through the rise of AI, knowledge itself has become widely accessible, and the new generation entering the workplace and higher education no longer sees the tutor as the primary source of information, the way past generations did. This generation has grown up with a phone in hand and instant access to information, so they don’t need to be taught what they already know — what they need is to know what to do with it: how to turn that surplus of information into a career, and use it to build and progress their lives. It’s no longer about how much you know, but how much you can do — and that’s the focus of Oxbridge Pathways: adapting to this generational shift in how people learn. We’ve seen this kind of transition before. During the industrial revolution, people moved from reading history or economics at Oxford and Cambridge toward technical education, learning to fix machines, because knowing how to fix something matters more than being told how. Through AI, new disciplines, and the shift to remote and flexible work, we’re seeing the same kind of change again. Graduates now need to adapt dynamically to a fast-changing work environment, and that’s what’s driving all of this.

It will make a significant difference because the platform is adaptive — we currently support 28 languages, so learners no longer need English, or a particular standard of English, to acquire a skill. They can still meet UK education standards and reach the same level of knowledge that prepares them for the workplace. That’s a meaningful shift. We’ve worked on projects in China using British education standards, and initially struggled because our learners didn’t speak English. We overcame that: our AI tutor can switch between English and Mandarin, Mandarin and Arabic, or Arabic and Spanish. That’s the real value of what we’re building, and it reflects our broader vision — to operate globally and break down the barriers of language and culture.

For many years, I ignored the fact that education isn’t meant to serve social status. Linking education to status is what leads people to say, ‘I want to be a doctor, I want to be an engineer,’ as if the title itself were the goal, rather than becoming genuinely excellent at the work. I fell into that trap myself: I wanted to become an engineer largely because it sounded impressive, but in practice, it wasn’t what made me better at anything. Learning by doing, developing real skill, and proving yourself in the workplace matters far more than any social status attached to a qualification.