New Quality Compass on artificial intelligence

Our latest edition of Quality Compass explores the challenges and opportunities of Navigating the complexities of the artificial intelligence era in higher education. 

Edited by Professor Karen Heard-Lauréote, this issue considers some of the implications and impacts of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) on higher education in the UK. 

It looks at the potential roles of AI in the democratic transformation of education, offering particular benefits to enable and empower the most marginalised students, but also draws attention to its limitations in respect of those ambitions. It asks whether Generative AI will help to dismantle the expectations and biases that underpin curricula - or whether, if we don't remain alert to its risks, it may end up reinforcing them. 

This seventh edition of Quality Compass suggests ways in which this technology might be used to enhance curricula and personalise learning, while underlining the importance of maintaining core academic values, ethics and integrity. 

It also charts ways in which Generative AI may be deployed to streamline professional and pedagogic processes - from routine administrative tasks through to the assessment of students' work - and poses big questions about how the sector should be preparing for the ways in which AI might reshape the graduate workplace and the structures of higher education itself. 

‘Quality Compass is always intended as a conversation-starter,’ says Dr Ailsa Crum, QAA's Director of Membership, Quality Enhancement & Standards. ‘We look forward to continuing to facilitate this particularly timely and important conversation with our members over the coming months - and beyond.’ 

You can access our curated website resources relating to Generative AI - including QAA advice and a wide range of external materials - from our dedicated web page.  

All previous editions of Quality Compass are also available on our website.