Survey: Only 16% of US Faculty Feel Ready for AI-Driven Higher Education Changes

Only 16 percent of faculty at universities in the United States feel prepared for changes in higher education driven by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), according to a recent survey aiming to understand concerns in the higher education sector.

The 2023/24 Digital Learning Pulse Survey conducted by Cengage and Bay View Analytics found that just a small proportion of administrators (11 percent) are also ready to embrace the expected changes, Erudera.com reports.

Findings show that 83 percent of trustees, 81 percent of faculty, and 76 percent of administrators believe that GenAI will noticeably change their institutions in the next five years and assist in the ongoing issues.

Many institutions are trying to find solutions for the declining number of students. More than a third of the administration said they would offer more online courses to address the problem, while 47 percent expressed interest in continuing with blended learning.

Kimberly Russell, vice president of research for Cengage, said findings highlight the need for more improvement at higher education institutions before fully realizing the benefits of AI, PR Newswire reports.

“Institutions and educational technology providers need to evaluate how to integrate GenAI equitably in a manner that can enrich human instruction and enable more personalized, captivating learning experiences that expand access and success for all students,” Russell said.

The high cost of education appears to be concerning for participants in the survey, with 33 percent of students and 46 percent of faculty saying they strongly agree the costs of a two or four-year program are becoming barely affordable. This proportion among administrators and trustees is 41 and 35 percent, respectively.

Other findings include:

• Stress is the top health concern for students, faculty, and administrators
• One in three students was not aware of support services in their school
• One in four students have used support services
• 34 percent of students did not use services because they were not optimistic their situation would change
• 29 percent did not use services because they felt uncomfortable sharing personal information

Most students are satisfied with the academic advisory services at their schools, with 34 percent who study at two-year institutions describing them as excellent. The share was smaller among those in four-year institutions, with 25 percent describing academic counseling as excellent.

“Students felt less positive about other services offered, including financial services (24 percent) and health and wellbeing services (24 percent),” the report reads.

The survey was supported by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), College Pulse, and the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA).