University Senate Forum: AI and the Future of the University

Over the last half a century, higher education institutions all over the world, including here at the AUC, have spent significant resources to adapt their curricula, institutional designs, degrees, and disciplinary boundaries, to meet the needs of an increasingly interdependent and globalized economy. The vision of education that animated this historic re-organization revolved around the proposition that higher education has the core function of preparing graduates to compete effectively in an increasingly globalized and highly competitive labor market. Resources were allocated, performance and rankings were assessed and attributed based on criteria that all aspire to assess directly, or through proxies, the success of the university in preparing graduates for successful placement in the job market. A central question that institutions of higher education attempted to answer is how to re-organize curricula to expose students to training in skills that are relevant to today’s job market. Liberal arts education has been redefined and, some might argue, reduced, to a set of skills that will help graduates compete in the job market.

Generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) have already demonstrated the potential to revolutionize many professional and research fields. Despite many attempts at trying to forecast future directions of change, the fact of the matter is that we are nowhere near even understanding the implications on our academic disciplines and professional fields. The core vision of education as training in skills for the job market must be substantially reconsidered. Perhaps reclaiming the core ideas of liberal arts education is necessary. Many of the skills that universities have proficiently incorporated into their curricula are gradually being rendered obsolete by the incorporation of GPTs in the workflow of many businesses. In the coming five years, a significant number of high-paying jobs typically sought after by our AUC graduates will be significantly redefined, others will be gradually eliminated. Even the way researchers work at the MA and Ph.D. levels in natural, human, and social sciences will require qualitatively different types of training.

This panel, organized by the University Senate, will initially zero in on the classroom—the epicenter of our educational mission. We will explore what intellectual skills and faculties should be at the heart of our pedagogy and how we can adapt our learning objectives to better equip our students for a changing world. Delving into innovative assessment methods, we'll seek ways to better align evaluations with these new objectives. Subsequently, our discussion will expand to consider how the university at large can evolve its infrastructure and practices to bolster and extend the transformations initiated in the classroom, ensuring that every layer of our institution supports this fundamental educational evolution.

Panelists:
Maha Bali, Professor of Practice, Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT)
Nagla Rizk, Professor, Department of Economics
Thomas Skouteris, Associate Professor, Department of Law

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https://aucegypt.zoom.us/j/97931861334
Meeting ID: 979 3186 1334
Passcode: aucapr22

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