AI appears to be off the radar in the Federal Government’s policy approach to supporting needs-based students.
While institutions around the world have spent the past year grappling with the impact of generative AI on learning and teaching and also assessment, the Needs-based Funding consultation paper, charting the pathway forward to support a huge increase in students from under-represented cohorts, appears to rely primarily on traditional supports as the best way forward.
In an age of AI, is it appropriate to rely on a sample of 18 Indigenous students from two NSW universities in a study published seven years ago as evidence that a tutoring scheme is the best solution for Indigenous student support in future? Is a 2016 paper on equity scholarships the best evidence we can find to demonstrate that more of the same funding will work for the million or so students that the Accord wants to attract, who haven’t yet engaged with the tertiary system?
More than half of HE students surveyed in the UK this year indicated that they used AI to help them study, with many anecdotal reports suggesting higher figures here, leading to well-documented changes to assessment and in some cases to teaching. In addition, a range of AI tutors and study aids have been developed – touted by the Khan academy and ChatGPT among others.
Despite the seismic changes to learning, teaching and assessment underway, the needs-based paper doesn’t mention AI and paints a picture of needs-based funding for low SES students, Indigenous students and students with a disability being based on traditional, evidence-based approaches. The paper does not appear to call for changes in support to reflect the new learning environment, and appears to rely on peer-reviewed papers to justify ongoing funding for support programs.
While the programs may in fact be very effective, the examples of evidence for success are surprising. Given the tertiary system must be fundamentally altered to respond to the vision of the Accord, further discussions about the best evidence base to support new cohorts of students in new learning environments will be important.
Feedback on the Needs-based Funding consultation paper is open until 9 August.
