Will AI Become a Threat to Higher Education Sustainability? A Study of Students’ Views

Universities started to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve the quality of higher education services. However, the rapid adoption of AI tools in higher education (HE) may lead to sustainability issues. On the one hand, there are prerequisites for using AI tools to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). On the other hand, as consumers of educational services (stakeholders), students have their own opinions about using AI in the educational process. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ opinions on the use of artificial intelligence tools in higher education. The authors analyzed student responses to the question: “Do you think AI threatens higher education in the next five years?” The authors formulated this question based on the definition of “a safe learning environment”, which is associated with a “safe” learning environment (SDG 4.3). The authors made use of a literature review, a bibliometric analysis of 5000 sources, a survey of 1104 students from eight universities in Eastern Europe through cloud technologies to host a special electronic questionnaire, statistical processing of questionnaires, and testing of statistical hypotheses. The authors formulated and tested two pairs of competing statistical hypotheses. Finally, the authors obtained three new scientific facts based on the respondents’ answers. New scientific facts were obtained using a standard level of statistical hypothesis testing (α = 0.05). The main scientific fact is that 10.17% to 35.42% of students think that Artificial Intelligence threatens higher education. According to student opinions, AI may hurt the sustainability of higher education (SDG 4.3). The authors are confident that new scientific facts help conceptualize and promote didactic theory and practice. The study results are needed to predict, plan, and implement organizational, pedagogical, and methodological measures aimed at SDG 4.3 through a “safe” learning environment while further expanding the use of AI in higher education.