Pedagogical conundrum, assessment anxiety, and employability dilemma: a qualitative exploration of staff perspectives on the great GenAI quandary in higher education

Abstract Situated within the scholarship on how artificial intelligence (AI) affects and is affected by society, this article offers a distinctly empirically grounded, methodologically rigorous, theoretically rooted, and conceptually novel understanding of the great Generative AI (GenAI) quandary in higher education (HE). Drawing on sociological discourse on the purposes of education, it analyses exploratory qualitative data produced from semi-structured individual interviews ( n = 10) and focus groups ( n = 5) conducted with staff across Faculties at a Russell Group university. Serving as both educators and academic integrity officers, the research participants were uniquely positioned to provide valuable insights into how GenAI use speaks to the notion of what a university is for. These insights are embodied in the themes of pedagogical conundrum, assessment anxiety, and employability dilemma. Premised on socialisation processes, the pedagogical conundrum stems from GenAI’s potential to expand the scope of learning, a potential often eclipsed by the ethical considerations and unintended consequences associated with its (mis)use. Assessment anxiety emanates from staff awareness of the numerous ways in which GenAI tools could be misused by students in HE appraisals without detection, thereby making authenticity an urgent priority in evaluation processes to sustain the legitimacy of HE qualifications. The employability dilemma arises from the subjectification function of HE, which is perturbed when staff acknowledge the need to upskill the future workforce for an increasingly GenAI-powered labour market yet feel unable to fully dismiss lingering concerns that overuse of GenAI could deskill prospective graduates in core employability skills. Woven together, these themes generate a conceptually innovative continuum of emerging opportunities and ongoing challenges of embedding GenAI in HE practices that embodies a new discourse in the form of the great GenAI quandary. From this theoretical development, the article considers possible adaptations required for GenAI’s assimilation into the institutional framework for teaching and learning in HE institutions. Overall, the article offers timely insights into the ongoing and rapidly evolving impact of GenAI on the social contract between education and society.