IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v13y2023i5p118-d1139985.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Pros and Cons from the Perspectives of Academics

Author

Listed:
  • Alina Iorga Pisica

    (Department of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Tudor Edu

    (Department of Marketing Management, Romanian American University, 012101 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Rodica Milena Zaharia

    (Department of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Razvan Zaharia

    (Department of Marketing, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

This article investigates the perspectives of Romanian academics on implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education (HE). The article analyzes the pros and cons of AI in HE, based on the views of eighteen academics from five Romanian universities. There is a large and heated debate about the proliferation of AI in many domains, with strong supporters and determined deniers. Studies that research the implications of AI enrich the evidence-based literature on the advantages, disadvantages, threats, or opportunities that AI creates for us, for businesses, or for societies. Though many aspects are still less well known, attitudes toward AI are still under construction. HE is a domain where the implications of AI create passionate discussions. HE is, eventually, the sector that shapes the masterminds of societies’ leaders. There is a quest to find the perspectives of those who will apply AI, who will work with or for AI, and those who are opposed to or in favor of implementing AI in HE. The conclusions revealed by this study are in line with similar studies that exist in the literature. The positive aspects of AI implementation in HE are related, in the view of academics, to gains in the learning–teaching process, improvements in students skills and competences, better inclusion, and greater efficiency in administrative costs. Similarly, the negative aspects revealed by the research are linked to psychosocial effects, data security, ethical aspects, and unemployment threats. However, there are some aspects (mostly negative) related to implementing AI in HE that are less exposed by the interviewed academics, which are mostly related to the costs and efforts of implementing AI in HE. The possible explanation of this situation is related to the lack of strategic vision on what, in fact, the implementation of AI in HE means, what this process involves, and the fact that digitalization in Romanian universities (as well as in the Romanian economy) is in its infancy. The contribution of the results of this research is mainly empirical and practical. These opinions should be used as resources for managers of HE institutions to develop better policies concerning the implementation of AI in HE and for strategic vision toward AI, with the ultimate purpose of achieving progress and prosperity for the entire society.

Suggested Citation

  • Alina Iorga Pisica & Tudor Edu & Rodica Milena Zaharia & Razvan Zaharia, 2023. "Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Pros and Cons from the Perspectives of Academics," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:5:p:118-:d:1139985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/5/118/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/5/118/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tudor Edu & Costel Negricea & Razvan Zaharia & Rodica Milena Zaharia, 2022. "Factors influencing student transition to online education in the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown: evidence from Romania," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 3291-3304, December.
    2. Kamer-Ainur Aivaz & Daniel Teodorescu, 2022. "The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Medical Education: A Case Study at a Public University in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Pucciarelli, Francesca & Kaplan, Andreas, 2016. "Competition and strategy in higher education: Managing complexity and uncertainty," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 311-320.
    4. Andrew Cox, 2023. "How artificial intelligence might change academic library work: Applying the competencies literature and the theory of the professions," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 74(3), pages 367-380, March.
    5. Kamer Ainur Aivaz & Daniel Teodorescu, 2022. "College Students’ Distractions from Learning Caused by Multitasking in Online vs. Face-to-Face Classes: A Case Study at a Public University in Romania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-16, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicoleta Samarescu & Robert Bumbac & Alin Zamfiroiu & Maria-Cristina Iorgulescu, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence in Education: Next-Gen Teacher Perspectives," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 26(65), pages 145-145, February.
    2. Daniela Serban & Silvia Elena Cristache & Narcisa Georgeta Ciobotar & Laurentiu Gabriel Francu & Jiries Mansou, 2024. "Quantitative Evaluation of Willingness to Use Artificial Intelligence within Business and Economic Academic Environment," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 26(65), pages 259-259, February.
    3. Ines Djokic & Nikola Milicevic & Nenad Djokic & Borka Malcic & Branimir Kalas, 2024. "Students’ Perceptions of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Educational Service," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 26(65), pages 294-294, February.
    4. Rodney Duffett & Rodica Milena Zaharia & Tudor Edu & Raluca Constantinescu & Costel Negricea, 2024. "Exploring the Antecedents of Artificial Intelligence Products’ Usage. The Case of Business Students," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 26(65), pages 106-106, February.
    5. Rodica Milena Zaharia & Tudor Edu & Razvan Zaharia, 2023. "Social and Technological Interactions in e-Societies," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-3, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Furtasan Ali Yusuf, 2020. "The Effect of Organizational Culture on Lecturers’ Organizational Commitment in Private Universities in Indonesia," International Journal of Higher Education, Sciedu Press, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2016. "Higher education and the digital revolution: About MOOCs, SPOCs, social media, and the Cookie Monster," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 441-450.
    3. ILSIAR Pogorelskaya & LÁSZLÓ Várallyai, 2020. "Trends In Education 4.0," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 367-375, July.
    4. Adéla Fajčíková & Hana Urbancová, 2019. "Factors Influencing Students’ Motivation to Seek Higher Education—A Case Study at a State University in the Czech Republic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Chi Yuan Chen, 2023. "Are Professors Satisfied With Their Jobs? The Factors That Influence Professors’ Job Satisfaction," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    6. repec:ers:journl:v:v:y:2017:i:2:p:3-13 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Constantin ILIE & Margareta ILIE & Ionut ANTOHI, 2022. "Data Management in Unemployment and Education in the Field of B&A for Women," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 3, pages 60-68.
    8. Yong Ming Wang & Waqar Ahmad & Muhammad Arshad & Hong Li Yin & Bilal Ahmed & Zulfiqar Ali, 2021. "Impact of Coordination, Psychological Safety, and Job Security on Employees’ Performance: The Moderating Role of Coercive Pressure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Anu Jose Vengal, 2017. "Higher Education In China – The Conceptual Framework," Working papers 2017-23-08, Voice of Research.
    10. Anca-Maria Ionescu & Monica-Iulia Stănescu & Kamer-Ainur Aivaz, 2022. "Factors Favoring the Level of Knowledge in Writing European Funds for Sports Structures," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 90-98, Decembrie.
    11. PoTsang B. Huang & Ching-Chow Yang & Maria Magdalena Wahyuni Inderawati & Ronald Sukwadi, 2022. "Using Modified Delphi Study to Develop Instrument for ESG Implementation: A Case Study at an Indonesian Higher Education Institution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-21, October.
    12. Kaplan, Andreas, 2018. "A school is “a building that has four walls…with tomorrow inside”: Toward the reinvention of the business school," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 599-608.
    13. K. Karno, 2017. "Gravity Modeling Approach for Indonesia's Exports with ten Asian Countries," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(3), pages 3-20.
    14. Xuemei Zhu & Qian Gong & Qi Wang & Yongjie He & Ziqi Sun & Feifei Liu, 2023. "Analysis of Students’ Online Learning Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of a SPOC-Based Geography Education Undergraduate Course," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, March.
    15. Kamer Ainur Aivaz & Daniel Teodorescu, 2022. "College Students’ Distractions from Learning Caused by Multitasking in Online vs. Face-to-Face Classes: A Case Study at a Public University in Romania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-16, September.
    16. Ryan A. Fitch & Julie M. Mueller & Rebecca Ruiz & Wade Rousse, 2022. "Recreation Matters: Estimating Millennials’ Preferences for Native American Cultural Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-11, September.
    17. Sheema Matloob & Mónica Lorena Sánchez Limón & Halia Mayela Valladares Montemayor & Ali Raza & Julio Cesar Castanon Rodriguez, 2023. "Does Strategic Change Enhance the Relationship between Firms’ Resources and SMEs Performance in Pakistan?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, January.
    18. Kaplan, Andreas & Haenlein, Michael, 2020. "Rulers of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 37-50.
    19. repec:ers:ijebaa:v:v:y:2017:i:1:p:3-13 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Suyadi, & Nuryana, Zalik & Sutrisno, & Baidi,, 2022. "Academic reform and sustainability of Islamic higher education in Indonesia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    21. Machado de CAMPOS, Silvia Regina & Henriques, Roberto & Yanaze, Mitsuru Higuchi, 2019. "Knowledge discovery through higher education census data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    22. Cachón Rodríguez, Gabriel & Prado Román, Camilo, 2020. "The identification-loyalty relationship in a university context of crisis: the moderating role of students and graduates," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:5:p:118-:d:1139985. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.