Campus life [2024-11-15]

Academic excellence in the age of AI

— Editors

The question of how artificial intelligence is changing higher education and influencing university rankings was discussed in Bucharest at a conference organised by IREG Observatory. The NCU was represented at the event by Prof Magdalena Barwiołek, Vice- Rector for International Relations at the NCU.

The IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence is an international non-profit association of ranking organisations, universities and other stakeholders in university rankings and academic excellence. The association is chaired by Waldemar Siwiński, founder of the Perspektywy Foundation.

This year's IREG conference, held in Bucharest on 7-8 November, was dedicated to the theme 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) altering HE and Rankings'. It discussed the development of artificial intelligence in the context of higher education and global research. One session dealt with the challenges of using AI to improve rankings, while addressing ethical, financial and infrastructure issues. There was also discussion on the possible advantages of regional and thematic rankings over global rankings, and whether ranking is gendered.

The keynote speakers were Prof. Piotr Sankowski from the University of Warsaw, Josep M. Garell, President of the European University Adsociation and M'hamed Aisati, Vice President of Elsevier. Speakers included experts from Romania, Poland, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, the UK, Ukraine, Qatar, Uzbekistan, India, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Denmark.

More details: https://ireg-observatory.org/en/events/ireg-2024-conference-in-bucharest-romania/