The headlines don’t make for pretty reading. College enrollments are down and tuition revenue has dropped, plunging many universities into the red, despite increasing their prices. Syracuse University’s Chancellor, J. Michael Haynie, may have been responding to concerns about his institution’s specific situation when he said it was “a reminder that the way we have always done things is no longer adequate or enough”, but it’s a sentiment that could be applied to the sector as a whole.
Students are the ones who will suffer: as the Hechinger Report noted, the choices made to keep colleges afloat can affect everything from the cost of meal plans increasing to library hours and academic advising staff decreasing. Ultimately, the result is a negative impact on a learning experience that students will be paying for into their 60s.
“No one…[has] it all figured out.” Have colleges forgotten their purpose?
Then there is AI. Universities are now enrolling students that have spent the last few years using Generative AI, and that’s affected how they learn: AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months, while regular LLM usage has been found to reduce neural, linguistic and behavioral performance levels.
The use of AI is causing chaos in the university environment. A MIT study highlighted that AI is “upending foundational elements of the MIT education experience…undermining student mastery and confidence…eroding the “social contract” between instructors and students…[and] making it much harder to assess student progress.”
This is not an isolated issue at one university. As the report summarises, “Other educational institutions are grappling with similar questions around AI and…no one seems to have it all figured out.”
This is all happening to students that are already considered weaker academically than previous years. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment revealed that the overall performance of 15-year-olds in OECD countries has declined, with the lowest average levels of performance ever observed in science, reading and mathematics.
On the one hand, we have students that are less equipped for rigorous academic study relying on technology that, if left unchecked, has demonstrable negative consequences on their capabilities. On the other, we have institutions facing a financial crisis that is not only undermining their efforts to deliver an experience worth the significant investment but, it could be argued, their entire purpose.
Stop caring if students use AI
To fix this, the sector needs to do two things. First, we’ve got to stop asking whether students can or should use AI; even if it’s banned, they will. People always find a workaround.
Second, we need to double down on what the point of going to college is. Colleges must remember that they have been set up to provide people with an education that stretches their cognitive abilities while preparing them for whatever comes next. We’ve had generations of looking at outputs: grading essays, measuring competence via written exams, judging everything on scores.
AI can produce outputs faster than any human, so the attention needs to shift. If a degree needs to equip students for life outside of college, then a big part of that is understanding what employers are looking for. One study found that, while just under half of hiring managers looked for AI and related tech skills, nearly three quarters (73%) prized critical thinking/problem-solving, and 65% looked for adaptability/learning agility.
Right now, that’s not what we’re seeing; I’m the CEO of the world’s largest online academic library, and we help prepare students for their exact course. The support and guides they’re looking for give me a unique insight into what’s actually happening, and a change is very much needed.
For students, the focus needs to shift: what’s their understanding of their work? Can they explain their logic and defend their argument? These should be the questions being asked of them.
Look to traditional approaches for a future solution
It might seem radical, but it isn’t a new concept. Some universities have a long standing tradition of continually testing students’ ability to explain and rationalise their theories. In the UK, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford have humanities undergraduates write an essay a week which they then have to discuss with a tutor whose main job is to ask why. In France, students in classes préparatoires, the two-year track that feeds the grandes écoles such as HEC and Polytechnique, sit colles every week. These are intensive oral sessions with examiners that are designed to test quick problem-solving and reveal knowledge depth.
These approaches test reason, rather than the output focus of most assignments. The problem is that these systems are slow, expensive and don’t scale. Even those institutions where it is a deeply embedded tradition struggle to replicate it.
The solution might lie, ironically, in AI. An AI can hold a ten-minute “explain your reasoning” conversation with every student, every week, and flag the ones a human should talk to. It makes the one-to-few tutorials affordable, allowing lecturers to oversee more without degrading the student learning experience. Students get to test their ability to reason, to adapt quickly, to explain their logic and defend it.
Using AI to enhance, as opposed to replacing, the learning experience is already being trialled by a number of institutions. At the University of Wollongong in Australia, an AI agent is providing guidance for first-year students, drawing exclusively on educator-approved materials to embed academic integrity while delivering personalised, consistent support. Elsewhere, student teachers are using an AI-powered robot to practice how to handle complex situations with disgruntled parents before they enter the classroom. Two examples of universities focusing on that core purpose while incorporating AI.
Adapt or be left behind
“The institutions that do not adapt will be the ones left behind.” Haynie may have been responding to reports specific to Syracuse, but his response applies to all colleges.
Universities need to deliver exceptional educational experiences that justify the sticker price, and they need to recognize how students learn is changing. Prohibiting AI will only encourage its irresponsible current use, as a study replacement or crutch; instead it should be channeled into challenging students. Taking the reasoning assessment approach of the French classes preparatoires, or Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, and scaling it with AI, could ease the financial burden, enhance the learning experience, and produce students that are not only comfortable in how AI should be used, but equipped for the world beyond education.
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