Universities face difficult choices over how to integrate AI

{"text":[[{"start":6.2,"text":"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."}],[{"start":19.65,"text":"The approach chosen will shape the fortunes of the institutions and their students in the coming years."}],[{"start":26.049999999999997,"text":"“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."}],[{"start":39.8,"text":"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."}],[{"start":54.449999999999996,"text":"But for others, the growing costs of AI use are an increasingly important drawback."}],[{"start":60.199999999999996,"text":"“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."}],[{"start":69.1,"text":"Those concerns about financial implications mean some universities are trimming their AI ambitions."}],[{"start":75.6,"text":"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."}],[{"start":98.19999999999999,"text":"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."}],[{"start":112.64999999999999,"text":"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. While in South Africa the universities generally have continuous online access, the digital divide is getting bigger,” says McKenna."}],[{"start":136.29999999999998,"text":"Some universities are exploring possibilities in particular subject areas. Chie Adachi, whose remit is AI for education at the UK’s Queen Mary University of London, has recently overseen a year-long initiative to integrate AI literacy into the curriculum framework of the medicine and dentistry undergraduate programmes. The programme aimed to ensure students had a foundational understanding of AI, and covered clinical applications and the use of AI in the workplace."}],[{"start":164.35,"text":"“It can be a combination of conversations about what generative AI is, through to what they can do with AI for modelling diseases, the bioinformatics, or computing predictive models for certain cancers,” says Adachi."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":178,"text":"AI labs muscle in on $6tn education market; Elite AI-powered schools insist they provide route to excellence; Is AI killing critical thinking in the classroom?"}],[{"start":189.25,"text":"Educators have to accommodate different attitudes towards AI and varying skill levels. Some students arrive at university knowing more about using AI than their lecturers. In contrast, there are others who have never encountered the tools before, and those who choose not to use them, citing concerns around inherent bias in the models, data security, hallucinations, the potential environmental impact and fear of being accused of cheating."}],[{"start":215.5,"text":"A study carried out this year by Queen Mary Students’ Union found around 20 per cent of respondents did not use AI at all, citing worries around ethics, misinformation and accusations of academic misconduct."}],[{"start":228.9,"text":"In cases where students refuse to use AI, Queen Mary’s staff are encouraged to find alternatives, such as small language models, which are locally hosted and have a lower environmental footprint compared with LLMs, Adachi says. This can help to alleviate some student concerns."}],[{"start":247,"text":"Yet for many first-year students entering lecture halls for the first time, AI is already part of their lives. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been an accessible tool for their school studies for years. A 2025 Pew Research study of US teens aged between 13 and 17 years old found 64 per cent had used AI chatbots in their daily life."}],[{"start":269.45,"text":"Students are also integrating AI into their studies. A survey by Queen Mary published this year found 43 per cent of its students were using AI at least weekly for academic purposes, and a further 25 per cent used it daily."}],[{"start":283.65,"text":"More targeted aims, such as the teaching of vibe coding, which uses natural language interactions with AI to build software, are now a live topic of discussion at some universities."}],[{"start":295.15,"text":"Kemas says vibe coding is not taught at Telkom University, because he thinks students can learn it themselves. Instead, the university teaches the fundamentals of real coding in the first year so they later understand when and how to use vibe coding."}],[{"start":310.2,"text":"Similarly, while welcoming the use of AI, McKenna believes universities need to remember they are not technical schools, and their role is not to train students to vibe code or prompt in preparation for the world of work. "}],[{"start":323.75,"text":"As evidence rises of the increasing diversity in approaches to teaching AI at university level, it is unsurprising that regulators are beginning to respond. For example, in Australia, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, which regulates higher education, has issued guidance based on surveys of institutions suggesting, among other recommendations, that staff are supported and trained in AI."}],[{"start":350.1,"text":"Singapore too has established a Committee for Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education to create a system-level approach for institutions to identify issues together as AI evolves."}],[{"start":361.40000000000003,"text":"Luckin says she has worked with Australia’s higher education network HEDx to bring together groups of vice-chancellors including on the subject of AI. “We can work together to think through how to get the best results for students,” she adds."}],[{"start":382.70000000000005,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784886951_8630.mp3"}