Building an AI Future: Research and Policy Directions for Africa's Higher Education

Abstract

This review explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in African higher education, concentrating on its distinctive potential and challenges. African higher education institutions are pivotal in propelling economic growth, nurturing innovation, and fostering social progress. In turn, AI holds the promise of transforming the sector by offering tailored learning experiences, improving student outcomes, and automating administrative tasks. Nonetheless, resource constraints in many African nations present specific hurdles to AI integration. Deficiencies in skilled AI professionals, inadequate data protection infrastructure, and insufficient regulatory oversight often obstruct investment and widen the digital divide, potentially hindering Africa's competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We identify five crucial areas of interest for the education sector to harness AI's potential: infrastructure readiness, capacity building, collaboration and partnerships, ethics and policy, and educator-learner perspectives. Subsequently, within each domain, we delineate critical research and policy questions that remain largely unanswered or unaddressed in many African jurisdictions. This initiative aims to function as a reference tool for policymakers and researchers in Africa, providing insights into the array of issues that must be tackled to fully exploit the benefits of AI integration in education.