Faisalabad: The education leaders and international experts have said that the universities must fundamentally redesign their teaching, assessment and governance systems to prepare students for the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) rather than treating AI as a standalone technology.
They stressed that the future of higher education depends on equipping teachers and students with AI literacy, ethical awareness and critical thinking while ensuring equitable access to AI tools and safeguarding human accountability.
They were addressing an international online dialogue on ‘Transformation of Universities for Digital and AI Readiness’ hosted by University of Kamalia (UoK) in collaboration with ISLAH Universities.
The first session focused on preparing teachers and students for the responsible use of artificial intelligence in higher education.
The session was moderated by Prof. Dr. Yasir Nawab, Vice Chancellor, University of Kamalia, and attended by vice chancellors and academic experts from Pakistan, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Dr. Yasir Nawab said that AI readiness should not be treated as a single course, training workshop or software purchase.
He emphasized that universities need a complete institutional strategy covering curriculum, faculty development, student literacy, assessment, governance, ethics, data protection and digital infrastructure.
The panel included Prof. Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad Chatha, Prof. Dr. Saeed Ahmad Buzdar, Prof. Dr. Aqif Anwar Chaudhry, Prof. Dr. Omar Chaudhry, Dr. John Arthur, Prof. Dr. Ashiq Anjum and Prof. Dr. Tariq Zaman.
The participants agreed that artificial intelligence is already part of academic life. The key challenge, they noted, is to ensure that it supports learning and human judgment rather than replacing critical thinking and intellectual effort.
Prof. Dr. Ashiq Anjum highlighted the use of AI in lecture preparation, student support, feedback, data analysis and administrative communication. He stressed that teachers must verify AI-generated material and remain responsible for the final academic output.
The experts also called for major reforms in student assessment. Traditional assignments, they observed, may no longer provide reliable evidence of learning in the age of generative AI.
Universities were encouraged to introduce process-based assessment, oral examinations, real-life problem-solving, reflective work and tasks requiring students to explain and defend their reasoning.
Prof. Dr. Tariq Zaman emphasized that the debate should not focus only on detecting or restricting AI use.
He said that learning involves uncertainty, effort, mistakes and gradual improvement.
Assessment should therefore be personal, contextual and linked with real situations so that students cannot outsource the learning process, he added.
The dialogue recommended that faculty training should begin with a clear understanding of learning and assessment before moving to AI tools and prompting techniques.
The participants also emphasized transparency, privacy, verification and human accountability. Students should disclose the use of AI, while universities should avoid uploading confidential student, research or institutional data to unapproved platforms.
Equitable access was identified as another major concern. The experts proposed shared licensing, common computing resources, secure institutional tools and collaboration through HEC and university consortia.
They also called for the development of local-language models, Pakistani datasets and AI solutions addressing national educational and social needs.
The dialogue concluded that universities should neither reject AI nor adopt it without proper safeguards.
A coordinated strategy is required to prepare teachers, students and institutional systems for responsible, ethical and locally relevant use of artificial intelligence.