Generative artificial intelligence has entered Indian higher education with extraordinary speed, compelling institutions from IITs to private universities to redraw policies, redesign assessments, and re-examine the fundamentals of academic integrity. As students adopt AI for assignments and projects, educators are left balancing innovation with the risk of eroding originality.
Rising Use Among Students and Faculty
Surveys conducted at leading institutions, including IIT Delhi, reveal that more than 80 percent of students now rely on AI tools several times a week. The uses range from summarizing readings and creating mind maps to drafting code and compressing large volumes of information. A smaller but significant proportion of students pay for premium subscriptions, signaling a deep integration of AI into daily academic practice.
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Faculty members, too, are adopting AI in their work to condense research, prepare teaching material, and draft official communications. The efficiency is valued, but concerns persist that AI-polished answers may distort grading, weaken critical thinking, and replace the rough edges of original work with generic responses.
Institutional Responses and Policy Shifts
Universities across India are moving rapidly to define boundaries. Committees have recommended embedding AI literacy into curricula, rewriting plagiarism policies to mandate disclosure of prompts, and securing campus-wide premium licenses to ensure equity.
Institutions have adopted tiered frameworks that define acceptable levels of AI use, ranging from strict prohibition in some courses to responsible autonomy in others. Other campuses are altering the structure of assessment. At IIIT-Delhi, assignment weightage has been reduced while proctored examinations and viva voce evaluations have increased. IIM Ranchi has developed detailed rubrics that measure how effectively students integrate AI into problem-solving rather than merely producing answers. Ashoka University has introduced AI ethics courses and redesigned assignments to evaluate process and reasoning.
“AI in classroom teaching offers personalised learning, efficient assessments, and real time feedback such as DIKSHA, Samhita’s Project Tech Smart Classrooms, LEAD School’s AI system. However, it also raises concerns such as digital inequality, reduced human interaction, and data privacy risks, especially in under-resourced schools which are many in India. For reaping maximum benefit, it is crucial to balance innovation with accessibility and ethics.” says Dr. Niharika Kumar, Assistant Professor, University of Lucknow.
Global Models and Emerging Practices
Globally, leading universities have embraced AI more openly. Princeton encourages AI use with disclosure requirements, while Oxford integrates it selectively, designing coursework that cannot be solved by AI alone. Australian regulators mandate that all AI use be declared, pushing institutions toward oral assessments and in-person evaluations. In the UK, universities are experimenting with sector-wide pilots to pool best practices, including the use of AI grading platforms such as TeacherMatic.
The international trend underscores that AI cannot be banned out of classrooms; instead, pedagogy itself must evolve. Coursework is shifting toward building, analyzing, and defending ideas rather than producing text alone. The balance lies in equipping students with AI literacy while preserving the rigors of critical thinking and originality.
A Turning Point for Higher Education
The widespread availability of AI has dismantled long-standing assumptions about learning, originality, and assessment. For Indian higher education, this moment represents both a challenge and an opportunity: to integrate emerging technologies responsibly while ensuring that the essence of education inquiry, judgment, and the capacity for independent thought is not eroded.