OpenAI Campus Network Opens Student Club Form

OpenAI opened a formal application process for its OpenAI Campus Network on May 11, 2026, inviting student clubs at universities worldwide to apply for structured support. The initiative gives campus organizations a direct intake path to access AI learning resources, event support, early tool access, and potential ambassador opportunities — the company's clearest move yet to build organized relationships with student communities globally.

What OpenAI Is Offering Campus Clubs

According to OpenAI, the Campus Network is designed to work with student clubs across universities worldwide, not a curated shortlist of schools. The program has four stated goals: bringing hands-on AI learning to campus, supporting student-led events, workshops, and research, sharing early access to tools and programs before wider release, and connecting student leaders who are shaping how AI gets used in learning and work.

The framing positions this as a structured partnership rather than a passive resource list. OpenAI describes student clubs as local hubs for organizing and learning around AI, with the company providing support that scales with what each group actually needs.

A Detailed Look at What the Interest Form Asks

The student club interest form is notably thorough. Applicants are asked to provide their university name, country, club name, and club type — options include AI/ML, computer science and engineering, entrepreneurship, business, research, design, and general student organizations. The form also captures how active the club is, ranging from weekly events to mostly async activity, and the approximate size of its community, from under 50 members to 500 and above.

Beyond logistics, the form asks what the club's main focus areas are today — covering workshops, hackathons, research projects, career development, startup building, and community work. Two open-ended questions ask how the club currently uses AI tools and what members are most excited to explore next, each capped at 500 characters.

Clubs also select what kinds of support they want. Options include hosting campus events, ambassador and leadership programs, early access to new tools such as Codex, credits or resources for student builders, career and internship programming, research collaborations, public showcasing of work, and connections with other student leaders globally.

The form closes with a direct question: whether the club would like to be considered for OpenAI student ambassador programs, with yes, maybe, or no as options. An optional final field lets clubs share key achievements, unique focuses, or pressing needs.

What This Means for AI Campus Clubs

For student organizations, the launch replaces ad hoc outreach with a defined process. AI campus clubs now have a formal channel to signal their scale, focus, and readiness to OpenAI directly. The form fields also reveal what the company is evaluating: activity frequency, community size, current AI use, future ambitions, and the type of support that would actually move the needle for each group.

OpenAI has not announced selection criteria, response timelines, or how many clubs it plans to accept. What the program eventually delivers in practice will depend entirely on execution details the company has yet to share publicly.

Student club leaders interested in applying can submit their details through the OpenAI Campus Network student club interest form on the company's official website.