SA's tertiary institutions have to adapt and embrace AI — it's not going away

Daily Maverick

01-05-2025

On 5 April, Daily Maverick published an investigative article on artificial intelligence (AI) use in higher education, coining the eye-catching term 'CheatGPT' and placing the burden of ethical AI use solely on students, rather than examining the institutional readiness to guide it.
By framing students as cheating villains and educators as helpless victims, the article misses the real story: why has AI caught some of South Africa's top-ranked traditional institutions off guard?
Students are using AI because the world is using AI. And in a world increasingly defined by AI fluency, our universities should be leading the way.
Integrating emerging AI tools into education is hardly radical. Unesco's 2023 Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research urges universities to teach students responsible and ethical AI use. Similarly, the OECD's AI and the Future of Skills calls for digital fluency, critical thinking and adaptability.
These are common-sense global expectations for thriving in an AI-driven world.
The realities of being human in an AI world
AI can compute, analyse data and generate answers with stunning speed. But people ask the deeper questions. We grasp nuance, sense context and recognise when something feels off. We pause, reflect and choose. Our value in the AI era lies in amplifying what makes us distinctly human: curiosity, creativity, empathy, judgment and responsibility.
We are part of a long continuum — from stone tools to smart algorithms. Each tool changes how we live and think, but the principle remains: people shape tools, not the other way around.
Being human today means learning to work with AI without outsourcing our thinking or compromising our integrity. It's no longer about knowing everything, but about knowing how to learn, ask discerning questions and challenge AI with insight.
This calls for a new literacy — not just technical, but ethical and social. We must understand AI's capabilities, its limitations and its implications.
In Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Ethan Mollick writes that the future is not about humans versus AI, but humans and AI together. AI is fast and scalable. We are moral, imaginative and adaptable. The real opportunity lies in deliberate collaboration.
SA higher education should lead, not fear
A swirl of fears surrounds AI in education. Students may worry about unfair advantages through AI misuse. Educators and administrators may fear being displaced by technology. Institutions fear academic dishonesty, reputational risk and the escalating costs of digital transformation.
Yet, allowing fear to dominate the conversation leads to reactive, backward-looking decisions. Like our global peers, South African universities must embrace their role as leaders in AI literacy.
Counter-measures such as lockdown browsers, handwritten essays and timed invigilated tests are not marks of integrity — they are symptoms of institutional panic. These approaches reflect a legacy system reluctant to evolve.
There are more constructive paths forward. Staged, process-based assessments can trace how student ideas develop. Reflective tasks can require students to explain their thinking and how they used AI. Oral defences and collaborative projects make authorship and understanding transparent. Real-world briefs can treat AI as a tool — as it is in the workplace.
Such strategies don't just deter misuse. They develop better thinkers.
AI use in student work is not a crisis demanding a retreat to outdated testing regimes. It is a powerful catalyst for renewing long-questioned assessment systems — systems often divorced from meaningful learning.
Rising to this challenge could finally deliver long-overdue reforms in how universities measure learning and competence.
At the South African College of Applied Psychology, we don't believe students need more surveillance. They need better guidance. We don't believe educators need a crisis. They need AI literacy strategies.
South African universities and colleges have a clear mission: to prepare young people not just for the world of work, but for meaningful lives in an AI era. AI is not going away. No ban in a lecture hall will change that.
Let's be highly effective at teaching and guiding our students, faculties and administrators to understand and use AI well. Anything less is negligence. DM