Universities face difficult choices over how to integrate AI

Universities around the world are facing a dilemma over the use of AI: whether to embrace the technology and train students how to use it, or tread cautiously with what is often an expensive and untested innovation.

The approach chosen will shape the fortunes of the institutions and their students in the coming years.

“There is a need to be purpose-driven. What is AI going to deliver to our students, to our staff? There needs to be strategic thinking around governance, ethics, and use cases,” says Rose Luckin, a consultant on AI in education.

Some are embracing AI. Ohio State University, for example, has pledged to embed AI across its curricula, ensuring that its undergraduate class of 2029 will be fluent in the use of AI when they graduate.

But for others, the growing costs of AI use are an increasingly important drawback.

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“If you’re being faced with the need to do greater staff capability training, greater student capability training and you’ve got a funding crisis. How do you equate those?” Luckin says.

Those concerns about financial implications mean some universities are trimming their AI ambitions.

Kemas Muslim Lhaksmana, dean of the school of computing at Indonesia’s Telkom University, says the country could fall behind its South-east Asian neighbours in the adoption of AI. He hopes in the future there will be “light” versions of large language models and generative AI that can be run locally and will be cheaper to access for global south countries.

Similarly, Reynald Cacho, professor of educational management at Philippine Normal University, says many students attending Philippine state universities are using the free versions of AI, limiting their ability to make the most of the tools.

Divisions are also being seen in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sioux McKenna, professor of higher education studies at South Africa’s Rhodes University, who also works in Rwanda and Kenya, says: “Unless you’re in Nairobi, you’re not going to have the bandwidth. W…