The University of Rhode Island is launching a new Interdisciplinary and Applied AI bachelor's degree program, with a soft launch planned for spring 2027 and full integration by fall of that year. The South Kingstown university says the degree will require between 53 and 70 credits and will push students out of the classroom and into the workforce before they graduate, with a mandatory internship working as an AI specialist for a company.
A Joint Effort Between Two Colleges
The new Interdisciplinary and Applied AI degree will be offered through URI's College of Business in cooperation with the College of Arts and Sciences, according to a University of Rhode Island announcement. The program is designed to prepare students both to use and to develop AI applications, rather than narrowly training coders, and it can be completed as a stand-alone degree or layered on top of any other major as a second credential. Indrani Mandal and Devendra (Dave) Kale will lead the new program, per the university.
As Providence Business News reported, the announcement arrives alongside an image of students gathering inside Ballentine Hall, home to URI's College of Business, credited to the university itself. The outlet's report, authored by Veer Mudambi and published in the publication's education section, outlines the same core details URI released about the degree's structure and timeline.
Ethics and Privacy Built Into the Coursework
URI says the program emphasizes ethics, safety and responsible implementation as central pillars of the curriculum rather than an afterthought. The university has indicated the degree will train students to build AI tools using reputable data sources with proper consent, while emphasizing safety, security and privacy throughout. That framing puts URI in step with a broader trend: more than a third of 66 institutions surveyed that offer an AI major require some kind of ethics course, according to a study by Northeastern University researchers published in May, cited by WBUR.
Students won't have to wait until the official fall 2027 rollout to start earning credit. URI says students can get a jump start on the degree this coming spring through business analytics and artificial intelligence courses, along with an AI for Everyone course, the same semester the program has its soft launch. The College of Business already runs two other AI-centered programs — an undergraduate major in business analytics and AI, and a graduate applied AI and business analytics program — giving the new interdisciplinary degree an existing academic base to build from.
URI Joins a Crowded National Field
The timing places URI in a fast-moving national race. More than 100 universities nationwide now offer an AI major within a computer science department, nearly double the number from a year earlier, according to a Northeastern University database cited by the same WBUR report. Regionally, MIT, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology already offer undergraduate AI majors, with Suffolk University and Endicott College slated to join them next year, per the outlet's reporting.
Some of those programs illustrate just how quickly the field is shifting. Bentley University launched its artificial intelligence major in fall 2024 with only a handful of students signing up, the station's report notes, while MIT's AI and Decision Making major, which launched in fall 2022, has since become the second-most popular major on campus with 354 enrolled students. WPI's own new AI bachelor's degree only began enrolling students this fall, offering 11 focus areas including life sciences and robotics, and Northeastern renamed its data science bachelor's degree to AI this fall to more accurately reflect coursework like machine learning that had long been part of the curriculum.
URI's broader push into new academic offerings isn't limited to artificial intelligence. The university's online division reported in August that it now offers 49 undergraduate and graduate programs across the University, including ten new programs launching in the current academic year. Whether the new Interdisciplinary and Applied AI degree becomes one of URI's most popular majors, as has happened at MIT, or starts smaller, as Bentley's did, likely won't be clear until students begin filling seats next spring.
