2024 Governance of artificial intelligence and data in Australasian higher education

A snapshot of policy and practice

Abstract

This whitepaper is a follow-up of the Australasian Council of Open and Digital Education (ACODE) survey in 2023 on the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) and data in Australasian higher education (Selvaratnam & Venaruzzo, 2023). The results then showed the guidelines and policies in this space were still in the early days. Ethical implications were also emerging in tandem with initiatives and the adoption of generative AI in institutions. The latest survey conducted over July and August 2024 is 24 is picking up on the recommendations of the 2023 paper to inform recommendations for practice and further assure quality and equity in higher education. To this end, the JISC AI Maturity Model for Education is used to gauge the sector’s growth in the governance of AI and data both in policy and practice. The outcomes show that the sector is mainly at the experimenting and exploring stage of maturity in engaging with AI. The challenges were mainly in operationalising AI in a comprehensive manner across the enterprise, including increasing AI literacy across staff and students. More institutions are addressing the ethical implications of AI since the last survey; however, it appears that social and emotional wellbeing, and psychological safety still have to be carefully considered.