AI in Swiss HEIs: State of Play
Who in Switzerland is responsible for what students actually learn in the age of AI?
Download the paper here : The pedagogical link position paper
Switzerland is making real progress on AI in higher education. The Swiss Science Council has called for a national framework and a national AI computing strategy, and a federal draft on AI is expected soon. Yet no one holds a national mandate for the layer where learning is decided: assessment, curriculum and the daily work of teachers.
In a survey at the University of Fribourg and HES-SO, about 75% of responding students used AI daily or several times a week, while 23% received practical advice on using it. Only 28% of responding teachers received support from pedagogical services, and 70% wanted more from their faculties and institutes.
The research also suggests that access alone settles little. What seems to matter is what students hand over to the tool, and whether a task still leaves them doing the thinking it was designed to develop.
In this position paper, The pedagogical link, I propose six measures for national decision-makers:
- Make assessment a national workstream
- Add a delegation test to the national framework
- Define a shared floor of AI competences across all types of institution
- Fund teaching capacity in time and people
- Guarantee equitable, sovereign access, while keeping non-use legitimate
- Give an existing body a mandate for pedagogical coordination, with a shared annual barometer
This is a draft for discussion, signed in a personal capacity, and it speaks from one vantage point. I would especially welcome critical readings from colleagues in German-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland, from universities of teacher education, and from students.