The Slovak Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (Agency) calls for a meaningful use of new artificial intelligence (AI) in education. The Agency urges higher education institutions to pay more attention to the use of sophisticated AI tools in education. The AI technologies have the potential to fundamentally change higher education and its organization as they are becoming more and more sophisticated and widely available to the Slovak public, including students.
Recent progress in technology enables computers to produce advanced academic discourses. As a result, computers are no longer used for mere information search; they can produce whole essays, articles, theses, etc.
The Agency, however, perceives new technologies as an opportunity rather than a threat to education. As a result, we advise higher education institutions to be open to the AI tools and concentrate on their meaningful integration into education processes, research, artistic and other activities.
The Agency is against a total ban of AI tools as higher education institutions have at their disposal other ways of verifying learning outcomes; exams and viva voce can be adjusted to make sure they verify students’ acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities.
We are of the opinion that AI and its use provide impetus to innovation in higher education. Higher education institutions should be able to prepare students for the future use of these new technological tools appropriately and in all fields of study.
AI based tools should be used appropriately, at the same time we should be aware of their limits and potential negative impact. This implies the need to introduce adequate regulations of the AI use into higher education institutions’ internal quality assurance systems, while enhancing academic integrity.
