What’s the value of a university education?

With the rise of artificial intelligence, we as a society are grappling with its impact for our world as well as for our everyday choices and practices.

As AI, including generative and agentic AI, transforms how we access and use information — bringing with it many promising applications for science, research, business, healthcare, agriculture, creative fields and learning itself — it also invites a closer look at the enduring purpose of higher education.

UM Provost Dr. Diane Hiebert-Murphy describes the university as a collaborative environment that advances complex learning and research, while developing essential skills such as critical thinking, cooperation and problem-solving to the benefit of our society and the world.

The transformative aspect of learning is reflected in UM’s mission, vision and values and many areas of study and practice at UM, including the classroom experience, practicum and lab work, and experiential, community-engaged  and equity-based learning.

Learning how to think

What is the role of the university in the face of the major societal shift represented by artificial intelligence? 

Universities should continue to “embrace our role as institutions where students learn how to think, not what to think,” says Hiebert-Murphy.

A university education, she suggests, “offers a learning environment in which students develop the skills to think critically, engage deeply with challenging issues, evaluate information, generate creative solutions to complex problems and work collaboratively with others towards shared goals.” 

Engaging with diverse mentors and learners also develops leadership skills and exposes students to different perspectives.

“These have been, and continue to be, essential skills for participating in society and contributing to its social, economic, intellectual, environmental, physical and cultural well-being,” she says.

Why human skills matter more in the age of AI

As a technology, AI has strengths along with many limitations, says Dr. David Gerhard, Professor and former Hean of Computer Science.

At first glance, AI appears capable of many of the tasks associated with learning. It can summarize articles, generate essays, analyze data and answer questions in seconds.

But Gerhard cautions, AI is a responsive tool that is only as good as the questions we ask it. Its strength is also its great weakness.

“If it can find no structure, it will invent one, and it is still often difficult to determine whether an AI answer is real and correct, or a fabrication,” he says.
 

An added complication is that AI lacks legal responsibility and accountability. This means “a human will ultimately be responsible for whatever AI produces, especially in contexts where this content will affect others,” Gerhard says, for example, in areas of health, infrastructure or agriculture.

That puts an urgent emphasis on human judgement. He contends that, “a university education provides the foundations for decision-making and critical inquiry that allows a person to use AI and evaluate AI output in appropriate ways.”

In short, a university education can provide a solid solid foundation for the responsible use of AI. Beyond understanding how to use the tools, says Hiebert-Murphy, students need to be equipped "to combine technological fluency with critical analysis, a deep understanding of people and societies, ethical reasoning and creativity."

In the context of rapid change, she adds, this will empower them to “reflect critically on the quality of information, including what is generated by AI, and to evaluate the educational, ethical, economic, environmental, legal and social impacts of AI."

Adjusting educational approaches: We’ve done it before

President Michael Benarroch thinks of AI as a skill enhancer, not a skill developer. This spring, he participated in a symposium on AI and education held at UM and organized by the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

One impact for educators he noted is that “we will need to be more deliberate in assessing how we teach critical thinking, judgement, ethics, problem-solving and contextualized thinking.”

This is one of many technological shifts throughout history, from the invention of the printing press to the industrial revolution, from electrification and automation to the advent of the computer and the internet; with each paradigm shift, education evolved.

“AI is not replacing our critical thinking skills,” he said, “but it is reminding us how valuable it is to teach those skills in the best ways. We’ve adjusted in the past as other technologies have emerged and been adopted, and we can do it again.”

All emphasize the importance of digital and AI literacy. Students should know how to use these new tools as well as understand the shortcomings and limits of AI. (It’s also important to note that at UM, each assignment, course and instructor will have different guidelines for AI use; there is no one-size-fits-all rule.)

“We need to train students to be literate in AI so that it can enhance what they do and help them make an impact when they graduate,” said Benarroch.

“But we cannot become so focused on it,” he added, “that we fail to train the more fundamental human skills of reason, debate, critical thinking, ethics and contextual thinking abilities that are truly needed in the age of AI.”

Remaining human: Defending cognitive sovereignty

Educational institutions like universities help humans learn and grow and develop skills through learning processes.

But what happens when parts of the learning process are incrementally outsourced to AI?  Known as cognitive off-loading, it’s a real concern for educators and others who warn of its detrimental effects across society.

Universities are on the front lines of helping students preserve cognitive sovereignty and agency, says Heidi Marx, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, as AI encourages people to outsource parts of thinking and work processes and erodes confidence in their ability to think for themselves.

Universities also teach relationship and humanizing skills that build empathy and understanding and allow for dialogue across differences.

Human skills and expertise remain critical in many domains, from customer service to medical diagnostics to teaching and learning, she says. “Hence, we need to be very circumspect about when and how we employ AI tools at the level of post-secondary education.”

Marx cautions against the AI-based education technology marketed to universities as time-efficient and cost-saving measures because it can “lead to an evacuation or hollowing out of real research expertise at the faculty level.”

Though sometimes undervalued, the humanities and social sciences are crucial for teaching the AI-resilient and AI-resistant skills that help us remain human, she notes.

The larger project of university education, she says, is “to cultivate independent, ethical and empathetic thinkers who can navigate uncertainty, inculcate a sense of our shared humanity and our interconnectedness with other creatures.”