Degree courses in elite British universities failing to teach impact of AI in the workplace, report finds
Business and finance students were the most interested in the effects of AI in their chosen fields and believed more teaching of this would have improved their courses
Undergraduates attending UK universities want degree courses to cover more about the impact of AI in their chosen fields
Britain’s newer universities are teaching students more about AI at work than the most selective institutions, according to a report.
A new survey of undergraduates has found that 30% attending post-92 institutions say AI at work is taught thoroughly on their course, compared with 20% at elite Russell Group universities, which include Oxford, Cambridge and University College London.
Social science students are the worst served of any subject, with almost a third – 32% – taught nothing about how AI is used in the workplace they are heading for, against 14% in arts and creative subjects.
Health and medicine students are the most likely of any group to say AI is not really covered on their course at all, at 26%.
Yet, the study found, students want to be taught more about AI and how it may affect their work and personal lives.
Better course content needed
Around a quarter put professional AI tools top of what would have improved their course, rising to 37% among business and finance students.
Male undergraduates are more interested into the effects of AI than their female peers – 32% compared with 20%.
On technology generally, only 37% of respondents said their course had used it effectively to prepare them for the workplace. That falls to a quarter in the social sciences and rises to 47% in STEM degrees
However, not everyone is poorly served. A quarter said AI at work is taught thoroughly on their course and about the same percentage of respondents said they were shown how AI is used in the types of jobs that graduates from their subjects typically do.
The survey of 1,054 undergraduates was commissioned by Bett UK, which organises and stages global education shows.
Bett’s portfolio director Duncan Verry said: “The rules matter. And nobody is arguing that universities should not set them when it comes to appropriate AI usage.
“But a student who knows exactly what counts as cheating but not how the tools are used in their future field, which is only being half taught. Students are not asking for a lecture on what AI is. They are asking what it does in the job they want.”
The study also found that one in six students believe their degree was a ‘visa’ that got them into the job application process but was of little or no use further down the line.
Two-thirds of respondents said they were not told, unless they asked, what share of graduates in their subject went on to get graduate-level jobs.
