Now, with generative AI disruptions, we are seeing a similar desire to cling to an idealized vision of the modern university. AI has unsettled long-established forms of assessment<\/a>, simultaneously instigating a return to older assessment models<\/a> in the interest of \u201cacademic integrity.\u201d <\/p>\n If students navigating higher education believe the goal is to pass rather than to learn<\/a>, then student misuse of generative AI technologies is nothing more than a rational action by a rational agent. <\/p>\n For meaningful university education, we need to shift to a process of building relations and knowledge with others through dialogue and critical inquiry. Part of this means taking lessons from pre-industrial forms of learning and contemporary educational movements.<\/p>\n We also need to shift from compliance-based assessments and grading to meaningful and supportive feedback and opportunities for growth, rooted in teaching and learning with care. <\/p>\n If students believe the goal is to pass rather than to learn, this will shape how they approach assigments. The turret on the Henry Hicks building on the Dalhousie University campus in Halifax in August 2025. \u2018Knowledge factory\u2019 invites generative AI misuse<\/p>\n Modern higher education systems<\/a> in North America often function as a \u201cproduction enterprise<\/a>\u201d or a \u201cknowledge factory<\/a>\u201d focused on research outputs and producing skilled graduates. <\/p>\n Philosopher Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lyotard<\/a> described how contemporary education is designed to<\/a> manufacture educated individuals whose primary role is to contribute to the optimal functioning of society \u2014 a class of people he refers to as \u201cintelligentsia.\u201d <\/p>\n He argued that education produces two categories of intelligentsia: \u201cprofessional intelligentsia\u201d capable of fulfilling pre-existing social roles, and \u201ctechnical intelligentsia\u201d capable of learning new techniques and technologies to contribute to social progress and advancement. <\/p>\n These roles align with some actions being taken in higher education institutions to respond to generative AI interruptions. For example, institutions are: <\/p>\n If we concede that the primary purpose of higher education is to feed the workforce and enable social and economic progress \u2014 a \u201cknowledge factory\u201d or \u201cproduction enterprise\u201d \u2014 then ensuring graduates are authentically skilled at AI or enabling them to develop AI literacy can be seen as rational responses to generative AI disruption. <\/p>\n Misalignment with meaningful learning<\/p>\n Mirroring the observations of Lyotard, cultural critic Henry Giroux argues that when shaped by market-driven forces, the purpose of higher education shifts from democratic learning and critical citizenship to producing \u201crobots, technocrats and compliant workers<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n This infusion of corporate culture in higher education has created the conditions that make it particularly vulnerable to generative AI. <\/p>\n Some key characteristics of the knowledge factory model of education include standardized tests and assignments, large class sizes, an emphasis on productivity over process and the use of grades to indicate performance. Many of these existing practices are outdated and often misaligned with meaningful learning. <\/p>\n The conditions in universities today make them particularly vulnerable to generative AI. For example, traditional exams shift learners\u2019 focus from learning to performing<\/a>, often amplifying existing inequities<\/a>. Debates around the efficacy of lectures have been raging for years<\/a>. <\/p>\n Grading practices are inconsistent and have a detrimental effect on learners\u2019 desire to learn and willingness to take risks<\/a>. When students feel a lack of autonomy, they tend towards avoiding failing<\/a> rather than learning. This is another compelling reason for students to adopt technologies that remove any friction or discomfort caused by learning. <\/p>\n Importantly, these conditions pre-date the arrival of generative AI. Generative AI simply highlights how instrumental logic \u2014 the factory model of university \u2014 can hinder learning. <\/p>\n Alternative ways to imagine education<\/p>\n In a time of information abundance and overlapping crises of deepening social divides, climate breakdown and rising authoritarianism, those with the agency to shape higher education (including educators, policymakers, staff and students) can draw on alternative visions of higher education to create meaningful places of learning. <\/p>\n Pre-industrial education served markedly different purposes than the current model of education, creating environments that would likely have been much more resistant to generative AI disruption. <\/p>\n In the ancient world, Plato\u2019s Academy<\/a> was a place of educational inquiry fostered through discussion, a multiplicity of perspectives and a focus on student well-being. <\/p>\n Access to the academy was exclusive, with the majority of students being wealthy enough to cover their own expenses \u2014 and only two documented female students<\/a>. However, in spite of this elitism, the absence of standardized curricula, exams and formal grading allowed learning to be built on relationships and dialogue. <\/p>\n Contemporary educational movements<\/p>\n Higher education can, and historically has, offered more than a pathway to economic advancement. Multiple emerging ways of teaching and engaging learners also offer alternative visions of higher education that recentre learning and the learner.<\/p>\n The ungrading movement<\/a> refocuses education on learning by emphasizing meaningful feedback and curiosity and moving away from compliance-motivated grading practices. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/file-20251209-56-93rkkd.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
\n THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Darren Calabrese<\/p>\n![\"Digital](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/file-20251209-56-q6pcv3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n (Getty Images\/Unsplash)<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/file-20251209-56-c6ofvb.JPG\")
<\/p>\n