AI in higher education: unveiling academicians’ perspectives on teaching, research, and ethics in the age of ChatGPT
Abstract
This study examines the potentials and challenges of integrating conversational AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools in higher education. Specifically, the study delves into how ChatGPT is reshaping teaching, learning, research, and student evaluation while addressing ethical concerns such as academic integrity. We employ a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with 12 highly accomplished academicians from North America, Asia, and Europe’s higher education institutions. Our analysis reveals ChatGPT’s potential to uplift educational productivity, learning outcomes, creativity, and idea generation but raises apprehensions about academic honesty, authenticity, and over-reliance. While ChatGPT can enhance educational practices such as brainstorming, analysis, and skills acquisition, its unchecked use may impede learning, critical thinking, and research quality. The study advocates for the responsible AI use in academia, underscoring educators and policymakers to establish policies guiding conversational AI ethical applications. Thus, training faculty and executing institutional policies are essential for effective and ethical integration of ChatGPT and other AI tools in higher education. Finally, this research contributes to ongoing research on AI in education by providing valuable insights that can harness potential of these transformative tools while upholding academic integrity and standards.
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Universities struggle to enforce academic integrity policies due to the lack of robust AI-detection tools.
“Universities struggle to enforce academic integrity poli -cies due to the lack of robust AI-detection tools [ 87, 88].”
From Redefining student assessment in AI-infused learning environments: a systematic review of challenges and strategies for academic integrity (2026) · cites this paper as [88]
AI-generated content can be factually inaccurate, biased, or otherwise inappropriate.
“In addition, concerns have been raised about the authenticity and reliability of AI-generated context, as tools like Chat -GPT can produce information that is factually inaccurate, biased, or otherwise inappropriate [ 56, 65, 88, 92, 94, 99].”
From Redefining student assessment in AI-infused learning environments: a systematic review of challenges and strategies for academic integrity (2026) · cites this paper as [88]
Faculty perspectives on AI ethics are shaped by disciplinary norms, pedagogical beliefs, and concerns about workload and professional autonomy.
“Research indicates that faculty perspectives on AI ethics are shaped by disciplinary norms, pedagogical beliefs, and concerns about workload and professional autonomy (Malik et al., 2025;Ravi et al., 2025).”
From Managing Artificial Intelligence Ethics in Higher Education: A Systematic Framework for Issues and Policy Recommendations (2025) · cites this paper as Malik et al., 2025
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- Authors
- Malik, A., Khan, M. L., Hussain, K., Qadir, J., & Tarhini, A.
- Affiliations
- Sultan Qaboos University (OM)
- Ohio University (US)
- Qatar University (QA)
- Corresponding author
- Hussain, Khalid
- Venue
- Interactive Learning Environments
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2024-09-30
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 2390-2406
- ISSN
- 1049-4820 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-5191
- OpenAlex
- W4403006468
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 21.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Interactive Learning Environments (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
- Keywords
- ChatGPT, higher education, academic integrity, AI ethics in academia, AI in teaching and learning, artificial intelligence in research, student assessment, critical thinking, responsible AI use, AI policy in higher education, faculty training
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