Positions of Higher Education Institutions Around the World on the Use of AI

Positions of Higher Education Institutions Around the World on the Use of AI Dr. eng. Diana ANDONE Director Digital and Distance Education Department Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania 21 November 2025, online for UNESCO Lebanon https://2024.democon-conference.org/ IEEE Education Society Conferences IEEE Education Society Financially Sponsored Conferences https://ieee-edusociety.org/conferences/about-conferences/financially-sponsored-conferences Join and follow https://ieee-edusociety.org/ 2026 IEEE DEMOcon Digital Education 2026 IEEE DEMOcon Digital Education incorporates the legacy of the IEEE Learning with MOOCs (LWMOOCs) conference with EMOOCs European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania 1920 Education Licence Master Doctorate Full time, distance learning, lifelong learning Academic Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania Elearning.upt.ro Since 1998 European University Alliance https://www.eudres.eu/ https://www.eudres.eu/ Centralised Support to the Network of Higher Education Reform Experts (HERE) ‘SPHERE2’ a consortium of OBREAL Global (coordinator) and the European University Association (EUA) European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) with National Erasmus+ Offices (NEO) and HERE teams in Partner Countries neighboring the EU March 2024 – June 2025 Technical Assistance Missions (TAM) Training to more than 1000 HE experts from Moldova, Albania, Kyrgysztan, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Kosovo Co-create to control and benefit from Generative AI in Education Regulation Adopt Use casesLearn Teach/ Research AI will shape every industry but in education, it will shape its framework Acceptance Digital Education Council Global AI Student Survey 2024 Digital Education Council Global AI Faculty Survey 2025 Inside Higher Education -Student Voice (May 2024) From dilemmas ... What do we do when (almost) everything we do and everything we teach students to do can be achieved through AI? To solutions ... We no longer ask If, but How. It’s not about what we do for our students. It’s about what we help students do for themselves. (EduCause Report, 2023) Where we are AI in Education Importance on the use of AI in education Learning has become one of the major ways of using ChatGPT 10,2% from all the prompts in ChatGPT are clearly asking for support in learning (± 2 billions coming from 7 millions users per week) A. Chatterji, et all – “How People use ChatGPT" (OpenAI, Sept 2025), https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/a253471f-8260-40c6-a2ccaa93fe9f142e/economic-research-chatgpt-usage-paper.pdf AI in Education https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_the_Future_of_Learning_2024.pdf If deployed well, AI can help unlock solutions for improving global education systems. AI in the news Universities are slowly adopting generative AI in their work, but in depth guidance is still missing for many institutions, with some waiting for the European Commission to set EU guidelines for safe use. https://sciencebusiness.net/news/universities/universities-ready-take-generative-artificial-intelligence-say-guidelines-are Regulations and Policies for AI ●EU AI Act ●EU | GDPR ●OECD | AI Policy Observatory ●UNESCO | Artificial intelligence in education European Commission: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Ethical guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data in teaching and learning for educators , Publications Office of the European Union, 2022, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/153756 EDEH community workshop on explainable AI in education (Brussels, 17-18 October 2024) Summary of policy recommendations The European Digital Education Hub hosted its ninth community workshop on 17 and 18 October 2024 in Brussels on the topic of explainable AI (XAI). Explainability, interpretability and understandability of AI systems are crucial to ensure these systems can be selected for ethical and responsible educational use, to identify biases and hallucinations within the tools, and to hold developers and deployers accountable. During the different workshop sessions, the 31 participants from all over Europe and from diverse educational backgrounds addressed the following three research questions (RQ) resulting in a set of policy recommendations that are presented below. The AI Act and explainability Question: How can the AI Act influence the implementation of explainability standards in AI systems used within formal educational contexts with a focus on transparency and accountability? XAI in the era of generative AI Question: What are the key challenges and opportunities for ensuring explainability in generative AI models used in classroom settings, and how can these models be designed to provide interpretable feedback to educators and learners? AI literacy and critical thinking Question: Which skills and competences are required for teachers and students to question and critically assess the decision or recommendation provided by an AI system? AI Policies in Higher education EDUCAUSE Three Areas of Generative AI Policy Focus for Higher Education https://www.educause.edu/resea rch/2024/2024-educause-actionplan-ai-policies-and-guidelines UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 AI and educators 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236 UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 AI futures not only about computation, intelligence, power, penetration — to rethink what “knowing” really means. — how we know and how we find out about things, how we acquire information, validate and understand its values — Digital divide – those who can ‘own’ it — Not only technical but transformational: how do we define learning, progress, and human identity in an AI age? UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236 UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — transparent, fair, and accountable by design and structure — Governance— it requires democratic, participative oversight (not only technical or ethical) — Strategic adoption of AI with all actors involved and their accountability UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education (inspired by ) 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 Policy must keep pace with fast-moving AI capabilities balancing human and machine intelligence — supporting open and collaborative structures UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 AI Regulations in Higher Education AI regulations in Higher education Students use GAI Innovative academics / university Academic adjusting syllabus, developing , creating new resources / tools Academic banning GAI Academic integrating GAI/ new assignments University actions vs. GAI Regulations, guidelines, support, , partnership, development guidelines /& support No integration /& ignoring UNESCO global report on AI and the Future of Education Growing institutional policy frameworks on AI, and investment in AI tools 19% their institutions have a formal AI policy 42% AI guiding frameworks are under development 70% of institutions in Europe and North America have or are developing guidance 45% in Latin America and the Caribbean UNESCO Digital Learning Week, September 2025 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395236 Analysis of Experiences on AI Yes 10% No 55% I don't know 35% DOES YOUR INSTITUTION HAVE AI REGULATIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS? 1000 HE experts from Moldova, Albania, Kyrgysztan, Lebanon, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kosovo AI Policies in Higher education DATA PROTECTION ETHICS TRANSPARENCY ACADEMIC INTEGRITY FUTURE COMPETENCES AI Policies in Higher education USA universities Common uses of AI span across the campus, including in personalized learning, virtual assistants and chatbots, learning analytics, grading, language translation, content and syllabus creation, research and the admissions process. https://library.educause.edu/topics/infrastructure-and-research-technologies/artificial-intelligence-ai AI regulations in Higher education USA universities https://padlet.com/cetl6/university-policies-on-generative-ai-m9n7wf05r7rdc6pe AI Policies in Higher education Stanford University Don't use AI to complete assignments or exams. Disclose AI use and follow your instructor's guidelines. https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/teaching-guides/artificialintelligence-teaching-guide AI Policies in Higher education Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Don't cheat or plagiarize with AI. Use AI ethically and protect your data. https://ist.mit.edu/ai-guidance AI Policies in Higher education Harvard University Policies vary by school and instructor. Follow your instructor's guidelines and the Honor Code. https://oue.fas.harvard.edu/ai-guidance https://registrar.gse.harvard.edu/AI-policy https://www.hbs.edu/mba/handbook/standards-ofconduct/academic/chatgpt-and-ai AI Policies in Higher education Yale University Policies vary by instructor. Don't use AI-generated text without attribution. https://provost.yale.edu/news/guidelines-use-generative-ai-tools AI Regulations in Higher Education AI regulations in Higher education •Politehnica University of Timisoara - recommendations approved by Senate on 25.05. 2023 •The use is not forbidden, but within the ethics, author rights and authenticity regulations •To include a analise/process validation •To include the exact information which is validated (question and answer) •To be cited accordingly •Changes in the Students’ Authenticity declaration “In the elaboration of the work I used specific tools of artificial intelligence (AI), namely ______ (name) _______ (source), which I cited in the content of the work/I did not use specific tools of artificial intelligence (AI)” •Guidance and training with academics and students in the final year •Validation after the finals this year https://www.upt.ro/img/files/hs/2023/HS_85_25.05.2023_Apr obare-recomandari-AI_UPT.pdf AI regulations in Higher education Politehnica University of Timisoara - recommendations approved by Senate on 25.05. 2023 Students may use generative AI technology to support their writing, in ways similar to how internet search engines, grammar and spell checkers, and (online) dictionaries and thesauruses are used. 2. Students may use generative AI as a source of information and to generate content, as long as they use the tool as an assistant, not an author. 3. If students use generative AI tools, they must provide full transparency about how they use them. Instructions on how to do this are provided 4. Students are advised to familiarize themselves with the advantages as well as disadvantages and potential risks of using generative AI. These topics will also be discussed in class. 5. Students who make use of generative AI tools in their writing assignments remain fully responsible for the texts they submit. https://www.upt.ro/img/files/hs/2023/HS_85_25.05.2023_Apr obare-recomandari-AI_UPT.pdf AI regulations in Higher education Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania is open to the use of generative AI (GenAI)-technology concerning education and research and encourages her students, teaching staff and researchers to handle this technology in a responsible and critical way AI for researchers Training Plagiarism check AI for teachers Training Guidelines Support AI Tools integration Evaluation AI for students Training Information Course activities Degrees Tools development https://elearning.upt.ro/ro/educatie-digitala/ Competence development CREATING GENERATIVE AI POLICIES Get all your stakeholders involved: Involve by survey, groups, consultancy students, academics, administrators, IT leaders, researchers, technology partners. Identify pockets of innovation If you can, build on existing AI policies rather than starting from scratch Build the academic integrity Improve Future Skills - AI competencies Develop tutorials and instructional support AI will shape every industry but in education, it will shape its framework My repository on AI https://zenodo.org/communities/ai_andone_research/ 2026 IEEE DEMOcon Digital Education 2026 IEEE DEMOcon Digital Education incorporates the legacy of the IEEE Learning with MOOCs (LWMOOCs) conference with EMOOCs European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit Dr. Diana Andone Director Digital Education Politehnica University of Timisoara Romania Email: [email protected] Elearning.upt.ro/diana.andone @diando70 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianaandone/ IEEE Education VicePresident for Conferences IEEE Romania Education Chair IEEE Education Board of Governors IEEE Computer Society, TCLT Open Chair IEEE Education and Women in Engineering EUA Digital Transformation Steering committee EDEN Fellow 2011, Senior Fellow 2021 EDEN Vice-president (2017-2021) Elearning.upt.ro cv.upt.ro Unicampus.ro