Higher Education in the Age of AI

Human civilisation has indeed made great strides thanks to technological advancement. It has changed life in almost all respects. Fire, writing, the printing press, the steam engine, electricity and the internet changed how people worked and how societies were organised. Artificial intelligence (AI) now has been added to that list. Earlier machines extended human muscle or the speed of calculation. AI extends something closer to judgement. It recognises patterns, translates languages, writes text, reads medical images and makes predictions from data, and its effects are not confined to any one industry. For Bangladesh, the stakes are high. Used well, AI can help the country close gaps in productivity, health care and public services far faster than before. If the country is slow to prepare, those gaps may widen. The change is already part of everyday life. A farmer checks weather and market prices on a mobile phone, a student asks a chatbot to explain a lesson, and mobile financial services use automated systems to spot suspicious transactions. Social media algorithms decide which news reaches which reader and so shape public opinion and the decisions society makes. Businesses use data models to set prices, screen job applicants and approve loans, and hospitals use software to help read scans. The State is changing too. Governments use data analysis for tax collection, traffic management and disaster forecasting, and in Bangladesh more public services can now be applied for and tracked online. Yet, when a machine shapes a decision that affects a citizen, a person must still be accountable for it.

Universities supply the people who will build, regulate and use these systems, so education policy will decide how well Bangladesh adapts. The national AI policy is still being finalised, and higher education needs a clear place in it. The national education policy should make basic AI and data literacy part of every degree, not only degrees in computer science. It should help universities rethink assessment, since a take-home essay can now be produced by software in seconds. It should fund faculty training, computing facilities and reliable internet access for students outside Dhaka, and set common standards on ethics and data protection for the University Grants Commission to apply across public and private universities. This policy should be drafted with universities, employers and students. Without national direction, each institution will set its own rules, and students will be prepared unevenly.

The country’s universities should feel the necessity to keep pace with the new change. They can emulate the example of Presidency University, a private research university in Dhaka city, which offers students the IT skills needed in the information age, and that commitment now extends to AI.  AI also carries real risks. These tools can give confidence but sometime, may also give wrong answers. They are trained on data that may carry hidden biases and know little about Bangladesh’s social context or the Bangla language. Uploading examination papers, patient records or business data to an AI platform can expose private information. Students who let software write their assignments may never learn to think through a problem themselves, and institutions that use automated systems for admissions, recruitment or public services without checks risk unfair decisions that nobody can explain. Every output should be verified, decisions should rest with responsible people, and clear rules on disclosure and data handling should be in place. We expect students to check what AI tools produce, acknowledge when they use them and do their own thinking in assignments and examinations.

Artificial intelligence is already changing how people live, how society decides and how the State serves its citizens. Higher education policy in Bangladesh must keep pace, and universities should act without waiting for every rule to be written. Some institutions have begun this work through their curriculum, student clubs, contests, research and international partnerships. In the coming years, universities should incorporate AI literacy into courses in every department, train the faculty members in the responsible use of these tools, adopt clear guidelines for students and teachers, and strengthen research links with industry and partner universities. 

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The writer is Principal Adviser, Board of Trustees, Presidency University