India’s time to re-imagine its next-gen universities has arrived at a time when the entry of artificial intelligence and exit of natural intelligence is facing turbulence due to Trumpolity. Just as there is no choice between pilot or auto-pilot in an aircraft, universities do not have a choice between artificial and human intelligence as the next generation of Indian universities is neither AI-only nor AI-free, but an AI-augmented university. This transitional transformation requires scaffolding safeguards to ensure that universities are not trapped at extremes but nested in the middle to distinguish between information and formation.
While Google was responsible for transforming access to information, Apple for communication, generative AI tools for intellectual production, universities exist for something deeper. They are foundation to human formation that shapes minds, values, identities and communities. A learner using AI cannot visualise the hyper-lightning speed at which information manifests. A similar handicap of ‘non-visualisability’ cannot happen inside the physical class room which cannot be overwhelmed by AI agents. A good teacher inside a conventional class room can notice the nervous hesitation in a student’s face, the dancing inconvenience to answer an unexpected question, the deafening silence in their mumbling answers and the connecting theory with live experience, all to inspire a student to pursue an idea nobody else sees. When the brick and mortar class room is a laboratory of collaborative human experiences within the four walls and the bits and bytes collide in a warehouse of digital data within computational walls, the need for a mix of both make universities of the future a dizzying cocktail. When many universities are jumping to the top due to the (p)ranking frenzy, the dizziness at the top doubles with the AI avalanche hitting harder and faster with every unit of passing time.
The global experience of seeding AI into the academic womb has been mixed at varied levels of adoption. Universities in North America and Europe have moved from sweeping prohibitions of generative AI towards promoting legitimate assistance and deterring academic misconduct. Aisa-Pac has also seen the rise of many innovative engagement models ranging from basic to advance while China continues to be an ideation warehouse overflowing with AI enriched finished goods and services. All of them involve redesigning assessments to include oral examinations, project-based work, supervised assignments and reflection on how AI was used. Some institutions incorporate AI literacy across disciplines rather than restricting it to computer science. An important lesson for India is the realisation of the fact that AI is not another computing department but another layer of every university.
India getting this balance right is critically important as its one of the world’s largest higher-education systems and talent provider. With millions of young learners entering universities, they no longer can be powered by legacy mono-engine but pushed by contemporary twin-engine. The first engine should remain conventional: teachers, laboratories, libraries, fieldwork, internships, seminars, studios, peer learning and face-to-face mentorship. The AI enabled second should offer personalised learning, intelligent tutoring, simulation, automated feedback, research assistance, adaptive content and data-driven academic support. A university running only on conventional education will soon become an antiquated museum while the two-engine universities become the twin-towers of learning. This is particularly important for India as it seeks to build universities towards Viksit Bharat@2047. Universities can no longer be graduate producing machines who know how to use AI but be capable of producing graduates who can build AI, govern AI, question AI and apply AI responsibly across the socio-economic spectrum. The choice for universities in this AI spread should be aligned with their private capabilities and not public status changing the role of universities.
When universities change so should the faculty. The teacher of tomorrow will no longer be a walking textbook but an intellectual architect. While AI can provide answers, professors must create questions. AI can produce alternatives, professors must teach students how to choose among them. AI can accelerate research, academics must decide which research is worth pursuing. The growing power of AI is a potent dose for human capabilities to become agile without compromising the need to remain curious, empathetic, ethical and reasonable.
The next generation of learners also need a fair share in the AI pie. The converging triad of legacy institutions, work-in-process faculty and aspirational learners take policy makers to the drawing board to design the universities for future. In designing so, the role of all the three are important with a trinocular vision and not just the views of the typical ivory-tower expert. In short: Need trinocular, not ivory tower view.
vaidhya@sastra.edu