Artificial intelligence in higher education

What role should artificial intelligence play in higher education? From ChatGPT to DeepSeek, generative AI (GenAI) tools of all kinds are forcing a rethink of university teaching, assessment, research and administrative work. Find out how to build AI literacy across an institution, use GenAI to support learning, harness AI tools as teaching and research assistants and manage the risks posed by GenAI and other AI technologies.

By Laura.Duckett , 23 April, 2026

Students are asking for AI guidance, not just policy

A female student on her laptop smiling to camera

The defining educational challenge of this decade is to equip students to use AI ethically, critically and efficiently, write Mahmoud Elkhodr and Ergun Gide. Here, they offer a way forward

By Eliza.Compton , 22 April, 2026

How to support students to learn from, with, about and beyond AI

Blocks showing man making path between bombs to idea

Educators should not be competing with chatbots and large language models. Instead, a continuum can help them guide students from passive learning from AI to synthesising information alongside it

Reading time

4minutes

By kiera.obrien , 20 April, 2026

The questions publishing students need to be asking about GenAI

As creative industries grapple with the prospect of AI-generated content, how can educators hone critical thinking skills in the book publishers of the future? Find advice here

Reading time

4minutes

By Laura.Duckett , 15 April, 2026

GenAI practice blossoms through the open exchange of insights

How a structured GenAI professional development series, built around practice, peer voices and multiple entry points, fosters open exchange among colleagues, universities and industry

By Eliza.Compton , 15 April, 2026

‘If you like, I can….?’ Why GenAI needs to come with a health warning

Man falling into laptop screen with numbers in cords in background

Warnings about the dependency-forming dynamics of GenAI are unlikely to change student behaviour, even as they fear its effects on their learning. So, educators need to help students recognise the engagement loops for themselves, writes Adrian Wallbank

Reading time

3minutes

By Eliza.Compton , 10 April, 2026

‘AI turns the classroom from structured event into improv class’

Design students working together in class

Rethinking the role of the teacher builds on alternatives to scripted material, such as studio-style sessions, flipped problem-based work, team-based clinics, Socratic debates, in-class case simulations and live data analysis

Reading time

3minutes

By kiera.obrien , 9 April, 2026

‘Our agency over our words is central to our agency over ourselves’

Using LLMs is easy but developing human intellect is hard – and that’s what the university classroom should be for. Here’s how to help students work on their mental muscles

Reading time

5minutes

By Eliza.Compton , 7 April, 2026

Inoculating students against AI-generated scientific misinformation

Detail of medic drawing a vaccination shot

GenAI raises an urgent pedagogical question for universities: how can we train students to evaluate scientific claims critically when the language of scholarship can be so convincingly simulated?

Reading time

4minutes

By Laura.Duckett , 6 April, 2026

How business schools can turn AI from ‘threat’ to ‘sustainability enabler’

Business schools can move beyond seeing AI as a sustainability risk by embedding it across teaching, strategy and collaboration, says Meelis Kitsing

Reading time

4minutes

By Laura.Duckett , 24 March, 2026

Build information literacy with AI: a teaching librarian approach

A group of students and a teacher having a discussion in a library

Teach students to use AI appropriately for research tasks by showing them the tools’ strengths and limitations and by promoting critical reflection, says Callum Perry

Artificial intelligence in higher education