Image: AdobestockThe debate around Artificial Intelligence should no longer centre on whether to adopt it, but how to use this tool responsibly and ethically to complement, rather than replace, human judgment, said University of the Western Cape (UWC) scholar, Dr Rekha Rambharose.
Speaking at the inaugural Scholarship of Learning and Teaching (SoLT) Conference held at UWC’s School of Public Health last week, Dr Rambharose (also known as Dr Rose), who heads the institution’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) programme, said that while AI offers speed, precision and instant feedback, it should not replace the human intelligence that brings empathy, ethics and sound judgment to learning.
“The question is no longer whether AI belongs in education, but how we can deploy it responsibly to create critical thinkers and strong graduates ready for the working world. Our task is not to fear the algorithm, but to infuse it with humanity because the most important algorithm in life and in education will always remain the human mind and the human heart,” she told conference delegates.
The three-day conference, held from 1 to 3 December, was organised by the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Academic and the Directorate of Learning, Teaching and Student Success. It brought together academics, administrators, and students to share research, best practices and innovations, and to discuss teaching methods.
Dr Rekha Rambharose runs the RPL programme. Image: Shelley Christians/UWCThemed: “Around the Ancestral Fire: Rekindling Learning and Teaching for Transformation”, the forum discussed, among other topics, reclaiming ancestral and indigenous knowledges, critical engagements with emerging technologies, teaching for equity and innovations in teaching.
Dr Rambharose, who earlier this year was invited to teach on the National Enhancement of Teaching and Learning RPL Digital Badge - a professional development course in Ireland that is designed for higher education professionals to enhance their insight into RPL - said the future of higher education belonged to those who could combine both AI and human intelligence.
Her visit to Ireland followed the publication of her study in the Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training, which found that with proper ethical safeguards in place, AI could strengthen RPL processes and make assessments more efficient and transparent.
Her research explored a new and fairly under-researched area that focused on AI’s role in supporting adult learners who enter higher education through the formal recognition of their skills and work experience, by automating portfolio assessments and improving accuracy in what is often a time-consuming process.
At the conference Dr Rambharose said neither form of intelligence was sufficient on its own. Without human guidance AI could perpetuate bias, and without technological support, humans would struggle to scale, but when the two worked together and technology served humanity, “education becomes limitless”.
Dr Sagwadi Mabunda, a senior lecturer in the Law Faculty and a cybercrime researcher, said the narrative had often assumed that students were highly skilled in using AI and mastering prompt engineering, an assumption that may result in universities adopting restrictive policies to clamp down on academic dishonesty such as plagiarism.
But when she asked about 500 second-year law students to use AI in an assignment that required more than surface level knowledge and involving case-law analysis, typically reserved for fourth-year students with advanced critical thinking skills, she found that many had only limited experience, and some only used AI for grammar checks and email wording.
Dr Sagwadi MabundaDr Mabunda said this gap between perception and reality reveals universities’ critical failure in assuming competency and responding with restrictions, thereby leaving students unprepared for a profession that increasingly expects technological fluency.
“Technology is moving at a rapid pace and we can't hold back our students and not expose them to what we're doing. What we can do is teach them how to do it responsibly, instill those ethical teachings, and then give them guardrails within which they can be a little bit more free,” she said.
Part of teaching students about the responsibility of using AI, according to Dr Rambharose, also includes teaching them about its environmental impact such as data farms’ heavy reliance on water and energy. Both academics and students have the responsibility to engage with these realities in the classroom.
“When students understand that their AI queries have real-world environmental consequences, it adds another dimension to discussions about responsible use. This awareness doesn't mean abandoning AI tools, but rather using them more thoughtfully and purposefully,” she said.
