How Students Use AI: The Evolving Relationship Between AI and Higher Education

The Digital Education Council’s 2024 Global AI Student Survey shows that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable part of every student’s higher education experience.  According to the Survey, 86% of students already incorporate AI into their studies with 54% of students utilising AI on a weekly basis. 

“The rise in AI usage forces institutions to see AI as core infrastructure rather than a tool” says Alessandro Di Lullo, CEO of the Digital Education Council and Academic Fellow in AI Governance at The University of Hong Kong.

Higher education institutions must consider how to effectively boost AI literacy to equip both students and academics with the skills to succeed in an AI-driven world.

‍AI is Reshaping Student Skill Development

The DEC survey reports that students have shown a strong preference for tools such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Microsoft Copilot, with each student using an average of 2.1 AI tools in their studies. Despite the variety of tools available, students still express a significant need for practical and effective AI use cases and technology.

Students primarily use these tools to search for information, check grammar, and summarise documents. 

However, 28% of students are using AI to paraphrase documents and 24% use AI to create first drafts. With concerns over the growing dependence on AI, institutions need to ensure that AI is being used properly and students are trained to manage the output of AI tools.

As this landscape is still evolving, institutions must stay ahead by capturing and adapting to these changes, shaping how AI tools are integrated into the learning process to promote deeper engagement with material. 

This involves redefining pedagogical approaches where AI can be used to support critical thinking exercises, original research, and intellectual exploration, rather than as a crutch for basic tasks.

Evolving Faculty Roles in Academia

The DEC AI Readiness Framework can be instructive here. The framework supports the evaluation of an institution's AI readiness or maturity across three levels.

A future-ready institution recognises that AI must become an integral part of the educational experience. As use cases emerge and mature AI will become embedded across a diverse range of disciplines, fundamentally transforming how students engage with learning and how faculty deliver education. AI-driven tools and methodologies will become seamlessly incorporated into the curriculum, becoming central components of projects, assignments, and research activities.

Higher Education Institutions  should play a crucial role in fostering a culture of AI innovation among faculty members. Dedicated centres or institutes for AI education and research can provide hubs for continuous professional development. They ensure that faculty are not simply just keeping up with AI advancements but are methodically incorporating emerging technologies and practices into their teaching.

By integrating AI into the institution's infrastructure and curriculum, universities ensure their programmes remain relevant and valuable for an AI-enabled future.