Speaker
Description
Hassan, B. M.
Federal College of Education Technical Gusau
baraatuh@gmail.com
Track: Digital Transformation in Higher Education
The impact of the use of AI on teaching, research and institutional management is transforming higher education. However, its integration in African higher education systems takes place in already existing structural inequalities that are defined by inadequate digital infrastructures, a lack of technological capacities and unequal readiness of institutions. These factors exacerbate the digital gap and create disparate adoption trends of AI in universities. This paper explores the relationship between artificial intelligence, digital divide and institutional resilience in Africa higher education. Its theoretical underpinning is rooted in the Digital Divide Theory and is based on a systematic analysis of the relationships between infrastructural differences, skills disparities, and differences in outcomes and their effects on the integration of AI. It addresses the impact of these differences on the ability of institutions to embrace and maintain the transformation of teaching, research and administration through the use of AI technologies. The analysis reveals that AI is not a neutral innovation, but one that plays with existing inequalities leading to different institutional outcomes. AI adoption is more likely to be successful in institutions with robust infrastructure and governance systems, and less likely to be adopted in under-resourced institutions, where adoption is fragmented and limited. Institutional resilience is one of the major factors driving these differences, as it indicates different capacities to absorb, adapt to, and transform in response to technological change. The paper points out that AI can actually exacerbate existing disparities in higher education in Africa, unless it is accompanied by targeted structural changes. It emphasises the importance of African and context-centred solutions that focus on infrastructure development, capacity building and reforming government. The study concludes that building institutional capacity to resist the impacts of AI requires reinforcing institutional resilience in a manner that directly tackles the structural dimensions of the digital divide.
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