Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming higher education at speed. However, integrating AI into the student journey from induction, teaching and learning to student outcomes, requires careful consideration of the pedagogical, ethical and disciplinary implications.

Academics who are positive towards AI are generally seeking to harness it for enhancing teaching and learning experiences, or evolve their discipline. Administrative and professional services colleagues, meanwhile, aim to understand the broader implications of AI in academic settings.

The expansion of generative AI’s capabilities was a big and widely discussed theme within higher education in 2023 that precipitated a year of fact-finding and planning. We now need 2024 to become a year of action.

Changing expectations

As complex institutions, universities and business schools acknowledge that speed of adoption can be an issue – and something that is exacerbated by student expectations. Increasingly, students from all demographics are proficient consumers of technology and bring assumptions over its use in day-to-day life into their study experience. More and more students are also engaged in employment while studying and the changing student experience, including that of international students in particular, is well documented and discussed.

So what do we know about student expectations for their institutions, focusing on AI-based support as a critical area of change and innovation?

Studiosity commissioned YouGov, as part of its Global Student Wellbeing Survey, to conduct research among students across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US, Singapore and UAE. The survey ran over five weeks in November and December and gained 10,189 responses, with 149 higher education institutions represented. Business students accounted for eight per cent of responses. Here are three key emerging themes from the study.

Students expect AI study support tools

In the UK, 39 per cent of students across all demographics now expect their institution to offer AI support tools (ie a trained, digital helper that gives personal feedback and other 24/7 study help) and this is consistent for all age groups.

Intriguingly, this proportion is significantly higher among international students in the UK (57 per cent) compared to their domestic counterparts (37 per cent). Business students are also more likely than those from other disciplines to want their university to innovate and provide AI support (57 per cent), compared to 29 per cent among students enrolled on subjects in the humanities and social sciences. Lastly, men are more likely (47 per cent) than women (35 per cent) to expect their university to provide AI-based support.

Worldwide, 57 per cent of students expect their university to offer AI support tools. Students in UAE and Saudi Arabia have some of the highest expectations in the world for this kind of learning assistance (84 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively).

Speed of feedback and improving confidence

Speed of feedback – ie “only waiting minutes, rather than a day or several days” – is the main reason that UK students would use their university’s AI support or feedback (26 per cent), followed by improving confidence, specifically to check they are “on the right track with their assignment’” (17 per cent).

Feedback speed and confidence-building reassurance are universally popular across all demographics of the students surveyed. The exception is that international students in the UK are slightly more likely to choose confidence over speed (22 per cent vs 21 per cent). Postgraduates have the highest amount of need for speed of feedback and support. As a large proportion of postgraduates are in full-time employment (38 per cent in this survey), this is perhaps unsurprising.

Feedback speed topped the list of desired use in most countries surveyed, apart from New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and UAE, where checking to see if they are on the right track was more prevalent. Further analysis shows that students who feel stressed, ranging from “more than a few times a year” all the way through to “constantly” (ie more than twice a day), also say speed of feedback would be the biggest driver for them to use AI support or feedback (26 per cent), followed by building confidence from being able to check they are on the right track (17 per cent).

Universities are not adapting quickly enough

Among UK students, 64 per cent say their university is not adapting quickly enough to integrate AI tools into their learning experience. This is also the picture outside the UK – 55 per cent of students in Australia and 60 per cent of those in Canada strongly perceive that their university is not adapting fast enough here.

UK respondents also revealed that a large number of students remain confused about what AI is and how it can be used in their educational setting. Many expressed concerns about the ethical use of AI, its reliability and the idea of AI potentially replacing human support. There were also reports of university-wide bans. However, while many students believe AI can play an ethical and valuable role in supporting their studies, they also felt that their university did not have this understanding yet and are being slow to react.

The launch of Studiosity’s new AI learning technology, Studiosity+, is designed to address these perceptions, with a focus on giving students formative feedback on their written work in minutes. Universities can see students’ progress, critical thinking development, pinpoint challenges and take next steps.

AI technology doesn’t just have the power to support all an institution’s students, it can also provide the kind of actionable insight that can instigate whole-institution change.