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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1463208
This article is part of the Research Topic Future Places of Learning and Higher Education: a Humanistic Perspective. View all articles

Perception of generative AI use in UK higher education

Provisionally accepted
Abayomi Arowosegbe Abayomi Arowosegbe 1,2Jaber S. Alqahtani Jaber S. Alqahtani 3Tope Oyelade Tope Oyelade 4*
  • 1 University of Bolton, Bolton, United Kingdom
  • 2 The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
  • 4 University College London, London, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) has emerged as a transformative tool in research and education. However, there is a mixed perception about its use. This study assessed the use, perception, prospect, and challenges of Gen-AI use in higher education.Methods: This is a prospective, cross-sectional survey of university students in the United Kingdom (UK) distributed online between January and April 2024. Demography of participants and their perception of Gen-AI and other AI tools were assessed collected and statistically analysed to assess the difference in perception between various subgroups.Results: A total of 136 students responded to the survey of which 59% (80) were male. The majority were aware of Gen-AI and other AI use in academia (61%) with 52% having personal experience of the tools. Grammar correction and idea generation were the two most common tasks of use, with 37% being regular users. Fifty-six percent of respondents agreed that AI gives an academic edge with 40% holding a positive overall perception about the use in academia. Comparatively, there was a statistically significant difference in overall perception between different age ranges (I 2 = 27.39; p = 0.002) and levels of education (I 2 = 20.07; p < 0.001). Also, 83% of students believe AI use will increase in academia with over half agreeing it should be integrated into learning. Plagiarism (33%), privacy issues (14%), and lack of clarity by the university (13%) remain the top concerns regarding the use of Gen-AI and other AI tools in academia.Conclusions: Gen-AI and other AI tools are being used and their use will continue to grow in higher education. While current use is challenging due mainly to plagiarism fear and lack of clarity by the university, most users believe AI should be integrated into the university curriculum.

    Keywords: artificial intelligence, Generative AI, higher education, machine learning, pedagogy

    Received: 11 Jul 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arowosegbe, Alqahtani and Oyelade. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tope Oyelade, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.