South Africa’s response to AI in higher education must go beyond whether students use the technology to complete assignments, Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela told the 4th Universities South Africa Higher Education Conference.
The questions that matter, he said, are who develops AI technologies, whose languages and experiences are represented, who controls the infrastructure, and who benefits from the knowledge produced.
“We need graduates who can use these tools intelligently and question them competently. We also need researchers capable of helping to build them.”
What universities are for
Manamela argued AI makes the traditional academic function more urgent rather than less.
“The university has always done more than transmit information. It has taught people to question an argument, test evidence, practise a discipline and take responsibility for what they claim to know. Artificial intelligence makes these functions more urgent.”
AI systems, he cautioned, can produce content without establishing whether their claims are true, and generate answers without understanding the social consequences of acting on them.
“Its usefulness does not remove our responsibility to judge it.”
The humanities argument
Manamela named African language technologies, appropriate datasets, computing capacity and research partnerships as matters of educational and developmental importance — then made a point ministers rarely make.
“This requires the humanities and social sciences, alongside engineering and the natural sciences. Questions about bias, power, labour, law and human dignity cannot be settled by computing power alone.”
That is an unusual emphasis in a policy environment where AI capacity is typically measured in engineers trained and compute installed.
A demand without a mechanism
The minister called on universities to move beyond general discussion about AI and make practical choices on teaching, assessment and research capacity.
No funding, deadline or instrument was attached to that call.
He also raised lifelong learning, noting that technological change will require people to return to study throughout their working lives. “Universities must consider how they can make that possible, while maintaining the depth and standards that give their qualifications value.”
How that would be funded, accredited or structured was not addressed.
The conference
The USAf Higher Education Conference runs from 7 to 9 October at the CSIR Convention Centre, under the theme “Co-creating a Resilient Future.”
It brings together university leaders, academics, researchers, professional staff, students, labour representatives and international guests to develop collective strategies for keeping universities responsive and adaptable.
Based on reporting by SAnews.gov.za.
