By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera
I’m excited to share Coursera’s first AI in Higher Education Report, exploring AI use and attitudes among students and educators globally. Capturing responses to a survey of over 4,200 university faculty and college students in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico, the report found that nearly all students and educators are now using AI to facilitate personalized learning, provide real-time feedback, and increase productivity and efficiency.
Key findings from our AI in Higher Education Report include:
- AI use is now effectively ubiquitous throughout higher education — among both students and educators.
- Among all faculty and students surveyed by Coursera, over 95% of respondents reported being users of AI tools in an educational context.
- In all five countries surveyed by Coursera, a majority of respondents reported using AI tools ‘always’ or ‘often’.
- Faculty in the United States were the most consistent AI adopters: 75% of American educators reported using AI tools ‘often’ or ‘always’ in their work.
- Students and faculty alike express consistently positive sentiments about AI’s impact on higher education.
- 81% of students and educators surveyed by Coursera report that AI is positively influencing higher education.
- Students (83% net positive) were slightly more likely to express positive sentiments than educators (77% net positive).
- Only 9% of respondents (11% of educators and 7% of students) believed that AI was having a negative effect on higher education.
- Students and educators are particularly optimistic about the potential for AI to facilitate personalized learning.
- When asked to specify the positive effects they believe AI can deliver in educational settings, the most frequently-selected response was ‘facilitating personalized learning’, selected by 47% of respondents.
- Students (49%) were more positive about AI’s capacity for personalized learning than faculty (44%), though it was the most-frequently-selected benefit among both cohorts.
- Faculty and students also expressed optimism about AI’s capacity to Increase productivity and efficiency (40%), drive better support (40%), and support real-time feedback on work (36%)
- However, though broadly positive about AI’s role in higher education, faculty express concerns about regulation, governance, and their own preparedness.
- 52% of educators believe that the higher education system in their country is unprepared to handle AI, and only 26% of faculty respondents globally reported that their institution has a formal policy governing AI use.
- Only 28% believe their own university is ready to manage students’ use of AI.
- Personal skills gaps are also a consistent concern for faculty: only 25% of faculty believe they and their peers have the right skills to use AI to their advantage.
- Students report that AI is enhancing their learning—rather than replacing traditional study methods.
- The most commonly-cited AI use case for student surveyed by Coursera was research (identified by 51% of student respondents)
- Students are also using AI to support writing (49%), to undertake practice questions or exams (46%), and to assist with time management (44%)
- A majority of student respondents (63%) use AI for less than half of their tasks.
The survey results are supplemented by case studies from Coursera’s 210+ university partners and 770+ Coursera for Campus customers, and recommendations for effective AI implementation. These recommendations include:
- Integrating AI literacy into professional development for faculty
- Equipping educators with practical AI skills
- Establishing transparent policies that guide appropriate use in teaching, assessment, and research.
By grounding decisions in research, fostering human collaboration, and creating structured guidance for both faculty and students, universities can build confidence, protect academic standards, and harness AI to strengthen learning outcomes.
Caroline Williams, Executive Director, Oxford Saïd Online, commented: “At Oxford Saïd, we see AI as a learning companion, not a content authority or a source of answers. Drawing on evidence-based learning design, we’re building online courses for 2026 where AI helps learners understand ideas, think critically, and create things together, acting like a thought partner. Central to this approach is a responsible and transparent human-AI relationship, one that deliberately evolves from structured support toward learner agency, critical engagement, and purposeful use, ensuring that cognitive responsibility remains with the learner. Ultimately, our aim is not to teach learners to rely on AI, but to learn with it thoughtfully, critically, and with intellectual ownership.”
As a global online learning platform, Coursera offers a range of solutions to empower faculty as they navigate AI in the classroom, including Academic Integrity tools that have promoted robust learning across over 13 million course completions; and a range of courses from leading universities designed to support faculty engagement, including Generative AI for Educators & Teachers from Vanderbilt University and AI in Education: Leveraging ChatGPT for Teaching from The Wharton School, in collaboration with OpenAI.
To learn more, download the full report here.
