Oxford University Press (OUP) undertook two surveys in June 2024—one with undergraduate students—and one with those teaching undergraduate students. The surveys set out to understand the variance in perceptions and use of AI across those studying or working in Higher Education, and to help inform work with AI in the context of Higher Education.

The survey questions covered current behaviors and attitudes towards AI, as well as beginning to look to the future role AI might play in Higher Education. Overall, there were 674 responses from students and 841 responses from lecturers of undergraduate students. These formed the samples for analyses.

The research findings in this report are designed to contribute to the discussion of how AI might fit into the HE sector.

• A quarter of lecturer responders feel they have a good understanding of AI tools used for teaching, and just over half feel they have some understanding. Around 80% of lecturers have used some form of AI to support their teaching, most commonly anti-plagiarism software and AI chatbots
  
  
• 94% of students have used AI to enhance their learning, with AI chatbots being most popular, followed by writing assistants, with the majority believing they have benefitted from using AI tools

• Institutional policy can play a vital role in the fluency and adoption of AI tools lecturers use in their teaching and classrooms
  
  
• Those lecturers who feel more positive towards AI are likely based at HE institutions that generally allow the use of AI. They have engaged with AI chatbots, machine translation, writing assistants, and reference management tools.
  
  
• Those lecturers who feel less positive, perhaps fueled in part by their institutions’ approach to combating use of AI, are more likely solely to have used anti-plagiarism AI tools, or have chosen not to engage with any AI tools

• This includes explaining content in a different way, summarizing content, generating ideas, to make notes, and to surface alternative viewpoints

• A minority of students (26%) would feel comfortable receiving feedback on their work from AI
  
  
• Overall, 41% of students believe that their higher education institution should offer general courses on AI

• Over half of the lecturers feel "concerned" when thinking about how AI might be used in higher education
  
  
• 62% of lecturers are anxious about the impact AI could have on higher education and 46% have concerns that students who use AI will fail to develop core skills (i.e. critical thinking) required to succeed in their studies
  
  
• Trust in students using AI ethically is very low, with only 3% reporting that they do trust their students to do so

• 51% of students who have used AI say they have benefitted from using AI in their learning, and 48% enjoy experimenting with different AI tools. 44% of students generally believe that AI will revolutionize how people learn, including the creation of more efficient learning pathways.
  
  
• About half of students are feeling curious and optimistic about how AI could support their learning
  
  
• Just over half of student respondents indicate that it’s important to assess the outputs from AI tools before including them in their studies, and 38% said that using AI to generate content for graded assessments is the same as cheating

• Lecturers, across the board, have a low level of trust in AI companies whereas students have a higher level of confidence that AI companies are creating tools that support their studies and trust that their data won’t be misused
  
  
• 13% of lecturers believe AI companies have created tools that effectively support teaching, whereas almost 40% of students think AI companies have created tools that support their learning experience
  
  
• Only 3% of lecturers trust AI companies not to use their data without permission; 17% of students share this view

• Expressing positive sentiments, 30% of lecturers enjoy experimenting with different AI tools to see how it could enhance their teaching and believe that AI will revolutionize teaching in higher education

• Students and lecturers believe that AI will have a significant impact on the world and on their futures
  
  
• Overall, lecturers feel that AI will change the world, and most student responders share that sentiment

• Both lecturer and student respondents share concerns about the impact AI will have on future job prospects
  
  
• 40% of students expressed concerns that AI will impact their future job prospects
  
  
• 27% percent of lecturers believe AI poses a threat to their role as a teacher

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