· Katie Steen · 3 min read
New HEPI Report: AI and the Future of Universities
A reflection on HEPI’s AI and universities report, and why institution-wide staff development needs to be treated as a strategic priority.
As I sit-down to write the first blog on behalf of our new company, WorkSmart-AI, my attention has just been drawn towards a new report by HEPI, AI-and-the-Future-of-Universities.pdf. Whilst there are many facts and thoughts that I could highlight from this incredibly interesting series of essays, my particular favourite (I’m unsurprisingly biased given the article’s focus on staff development) is contained within Professor Janice Kay and Derfel Owen’s essay addressing the “Opportunities and challenges for the higher education workforce”.
In it they write:
“In a robust culture of AI literacy, effective staff development is a strategic imperative…… We must shift from gradual adaptation to institution-wide workforce planning, ensuring that staff are competent in using AI and equipped to engage critically with implications for pedagogy, assessment and academic integrity. Proactive workforce planning that embeds AI competency across the staff base must be a core institutional priority.
This need to empower University staff with the time and the opportunities to carry out staff development, in order to be able to embrace and not fear AI, is something that Dave Weller (my new business partner!) and I are passionate about – and is the reason that we’ve created WorkSmart-AI.
We’ve seen first-hand the huge benefits and genuine excitement that well-trained and supported staff can feel when using AI in the workplace. However, we’ve also met lots of colleagues across the sector who have not been so lucky in receiving any form of training, and who are genuinely terrified with what AI could mean to their jobs and their careers.
For many staff, it’s not a lack of interest or enthusiasm that is holding them back from grabbing the ‘AI gauntlet’, but rather the lack of time for training, and access to information as to what are the ‘do’s and don’ts’ when it comes to their usage of it.
Throw in a multitude of other reasons (increasing volume of work / decreasing budgets) and it’s totally understandable to see that unless time for AI training is specifically added to calendars and strategically planned for, then despite all the good intentions, it will never materialise.
Having worked in the HE sector for almost a decade, I totally appreciate that there are so many challenges facing the sector currently…but as Kay and Owen state at the end of their essay:
“The question is not whether universities and their senior leaders and governors can afford to invest in AI transformation, but whether they can afford the consequences of failing to do so.”
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