How Best Can We Guide AI’s Impact on Higher Education?

Op-Ed Article by Susan C. Aldridge, Ph.D President of Thomas Jefferson University

Several years ago, I wrote an article that, essentially, posed this question: Are the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education worth the unintended consequences? I wasn’t suggesting it would be possible to hold back the next revolutionary force in digital technology. Writing as the then recently retired president of Drexel University Online and former president of the University of Maryland Global Campus, I described a series of specific shortcomings in AI-driven systems that most leaders of bricks-and-mortar academic institutions needed to be aware of as the next big AI challenge in higher education.

That article reflected two facts: that higher education leaders were only beginning to wrestle with AI’s practical implications and emerging challenges, and most of those leaders viewed AI as a series of discrete problems to be solved or concerns to be addressed. Today, as the president of a 200-year-old university with a legacy of pedagogical innovation, I know that we need to apply a broader lens: viewing AI as a multifaceted challenge for individual institutions and higher education as a whole, and as a uniquely powerful opportunity to leverage our past and define our future.

Founded in 1824 as one of the nation’s first medical schools and the first to open a clinic for the poor, today’s Thomas Jefferson University is a national doctoral research university known for its novel future-focused model for educating 21st century professionals. Entering our third century, Jefferson is determined to continue expanding our impact on our students and alumni, the local communities we serve, and higher education more broadly. I know that we must leverage advances in AI to achieve those goals.

That’s why, today, this is the question I’m asking: How best can we proactively guide AI’s use in higher education and shape its impact on our students, faculty and institution? The answer to that broad, strategic question lies in effectively pursuing four objectives that, I believe, are relevant for many colleges and universities.

Objective 1: Ensuring that across our curriculum we are preparing today’s students to utilize AI in their careers — in particular, to add human skills value that enables them to succeed in parallel with employers’ expanded use of AI.

Objective 2: Employing AI-based capacities to enhance the effectiveness and therefore value of the education we deliver to our students, strengthening their capacity for meaningful lifelong learning.

Objective 3: Leverage AI to address specific pedagogical and administrative challenges, ranging from improving learning outcomes to enhancing the effectiveness of recruiting strategies to managing deferred maintenance.

Objective 4: Concretely address the already identified pitfalls and shortcomings of using AI in higher education, and develop mechanisms for anticipating and responding to emerging challenges.

In addition, for multifaceted organizations like Thomas Jefferson University (we’re closely integrated with a large nonprofit healthcare delivery system and a nonprofit health insurance plan), I would add a fifth objective.

Objective 5: Leverage the university’s growing AI-focused knowledge and technical capacities in ways that benefit the broader organization and that advance healthcare delivery and biomedical research across the nation.

To achieve those objectives, we must adopt two strategic attitudes that will be essential for universities — individually and collectively — to thrive in the dynamic 21st century. First, a pioneering attitude. We need to view AI as a tool at our disposal — one presenting grand opportunities — not just as a force to be reckoned with and a series of discrete problems to solve.

Yes, opportunity involves risk, but the smartest pioneers find ways to mitigate that risk while moving forward. They find collaborators who bring capacities and resources to the table that effectively both spread and reduce the risk.

The second is a partnering attitude. Of course we all want our organizations to succeed in perpetuity. Yet it would be a mistake to assume we can succeed independently and in isolation. Mergers are one obvious option, and the 2017 merger of Jefferson’s legacy institutions (Thomas Jefferson University and Philadelphia University) achieved unprecedented success. But there are many more ways for higher education institutions to realize the opportunities and mitigate the risks inherent in AI. We should be exploring formal and informal partnerships across institutions, sectors, industries, localities and nations. We should share more information and ideas, and more clearly acknowledge the problems we’re wrestling with.

Adopting these strategic attitudes will, I believe, enable us to guide AI’s impact on higher education — ultimately positioning higher education to be stronger and more resilient in decades to come.

Susan C. Aldridge, PhD, is the President of Thomas Jefferson University.

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a partner content initiative and the views expressed are solely those of the author and not of WHYY.