ACE, in collaboration with Ultranauts, has released a new paper on AI’s effects on student experiences on campus.
Leading with Purpose: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Higher Education explores how campuses can meaningfully integrate AI throughout their institution while prioritizing human connection and equity.
“For institutional leaders, AI is not only a technology issue,” the paper’s authors write. “The challenge is less about deciding whether to use AI than about deciding where it genuinely improves learning—and where human judgment should remain central.”
As higher education leaders build out AI infrastructure at their institutions, they must consider how tools can be implemented to enhance many aspects of students’ learning. The paper focuses on how thoughtful AI use can be fostered on campus in three use cases:
- Personalized learning: As students pursue their credential, effective AI tools can be utilized to deliver individualized and timely feedback and assistance, which can further strengthen students’ learning and prepare them for their coursework and career.
- Advising and student success: AI tools can support institutions as they respond directly to students' needs throughout their academic journey, enabling support while still rooted in a foundation of human connection with faculty, administrators, and advisors.
- Assessment: Some AI tools are prompting institutions to reevaluate how they assess learning, and institutions should pursue approaches that support faculty as they prepare students to effectively use AI upon degree completion.
Throughout the process of developing AI infrastructure, institutional leaders must prioritize building a strong foundation, supporting faculty and staff in AI implementation, keeping equity at the center of these efforts, and evaluating AI through the lens of the institution’s mission.
New advances in AI will continue to shape higher education and students’ experiences, and no two campuses will adopt AI in exactly the same way. Creating a strong AI foundation must revolve around meeting a campus’ individual needs, infrastructure, and community where they are. The paper highlights priorities and methods to support institutions as they identify opportunities to thoughtfully adopt AI.
This paper is an extension of ACE’s body of research focused on the intersection of higher education and artificial intelligence.