ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION (HE): A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEETING QUALITY STANDARDS IN HE

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic higher education adopted a more digital learning environment. Digitalisation in higher education (HE) started a decade earlier than expected as previous research studies show it was expected to start in the 2030s. Digitalisation in HE became more vigilant when Artificial Intelligent (AI) started acting as a threat to the quality of higher education. The use of AI in Higher Education is still a problem. The purpose of this study is to analyse the challenges and opportunities that can be faced by Students and Academics (Service users and service providers in HE) in the use of AI for productivity. The study is based on how AI technologies can be used for the improvement of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment and to identify the challenges that Academics and students experienced due to the use of AI tools in Teaching, Learning and Assessment in HE. Furthermore, this study illustrates the opportunities available for Academics and Students in HE to use AI Technologies for the development and achievement of expected outcomes while meeting the quality standards in higher education. The study found both opportunities and challenges faced by Academics and Students in the HE Sector. Opportunity for skill development, research input, data sources and information availability, personalised learning, and effective academic administration have been identified as opportunities in the use of AI in HE while quality management, academic integrity and cheating, data privacy and ethics, digital divide, and depersonalisation of education were identified as challenges due to use of AI technology in HE sector. Overall, the study findings suggest AI is a useful tool that can be used for enhancing Teaching, Learning and Assessment in HE. The use of AI Technology in HE is rapidly growing and advancing and it is expected to grow further and further due to the high demand of users that should be expected by HE providers in the near future. Hence, the use of AI Technology in the HE Sector for the enhancement of Teaching, Learning and Assessment is recommended while meeting the quality standards and implementation of preventive strategies for academic integrity and contract cheating.