A review of higher education in 2025: a personal view

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I thought I would try to capture what I see as the three major developments in higher education during 2025, at least from a North American perspective. I then thought I would ask Chat-GPT the same question, and compare answers. I’ll start with my answer (which I wrote before consulting Chat-GPT).

1.The erosion of trust in science

I was tempted originally to start with the attack by the Trump administration on the autonomy of the higher education institutions in the USA, but really this is part of a wider trend among parts of the general population to distrust science and the ‘elites’ that run science.

It is therefore a wider problem than just the Trump administration, with examples from many populist movements in Europe and Latin America as well as the United States. Although less widespread in Canada, there are examples, such as the convoy in Ottawa protesting the restrictions during Covid-19, and a tendency by the current Alberta government to intervene for political reasons in health administration and the boards of some universities.

However, in Canada these examples are either prior to 2025 or isolated cases, although the widespread hesitation to vaccinate against measles this year is particularly worrying. (I had measles as a child before there was a vaccine, and it nearly killed me, and to this day I am deaf in one ear due to the infection destroying the inner bone system of my ear).

There are of course many reasons for this attack on science, not the least of which is social media giving vent to prioritising what people want, or don’t like, over what is true but inconvenient to them. The only effective response to this is better education, leading to an understanding of how science works and why it is so important – as well as its limitations.

With regard to the USA, I am deeply frightened by the attack on higher education and science. It will have a catastrophic outcome in terms of health and well-being, not only for Americans, who will suffer the most, but also for the rest of the world that has previously benefited so much from American science.

2. Immigration policy in Canada

Although higher education in Canada is a provincial, not a Federal, responsibility, nothing has had such impact on the Canadian higher education system over the last few years as the Federal government’s rapid changes in immigration policies.

I was a beneficiary of the once stable, points-based system of immigration, that took into account a number of criteria that would lead to benefits not only to immigrants coming to this country, but to the country as a whole. In particular, the old system gave priority to better educated and more highly skilled applicants that could contribute to the growth of the economy.

Then post-Covid, the federal government panicked at a (temporary) shortage of workers, and under pressure from business and commerce, opened the gates to temporary foreign workers and international post-secondary students. Universities and in particular colleges saw this as a financial opportunity, since they were able to charge full fees to foreign students (who were able to work full time on a student visa). Provincial governments also saw this as a way to off-set their financial responsibilities for funding post-secondary education. These international students in most cases were horribly exploited, paying full costs and often given sub-standard education. Ontario in particular was the home of a raft of privately and publicly operated colleges, who offered in some cases no more than a token education that did not help the students find quality employment – and all this paid for often by poor farmers in India: a form of colonial exploitation.

The result was a massive explosion of the Canadian population, with unacceptable impacts on housing costs and public services, a lowering of the average quality of education in post-secondary education with degree and certificate mills, and a rise in anti-immigration sentiment.

Then in 2025 came a reversal in Federal immigration policies that saw a dramatic reduction in student (and temporary worker) visas. However, this cut off the revenue stream of those (mainly) colleges who had expanded rapidly.

What the immigration bonanza had hidden, though, was that provincial governments had not been funding institutions at the same per-capita levels as previously. This was suddenly exposed like old cars in a drained lake. The result was the closure of many programs and even institutions, the firing of many teaching staff, and gaping holes in the financial stability of many Canadian post-secondary institutions.

In the meantime there are many disillusioned immigrants whose families have been ripped off, Canada has lost its reputation as a welcoming country for immigrants, many higher education institutions are in deep financial trouble, and the demand from highly qualified post-graduate foreign students has surprise, surprise, dropped like a stone. In other words, a complete fuck-up. Well done, the Liberal government, although provincial governments were not entirely blameless. Now the provinces have to pick up the pieces but it will take a long time for Canada to regain its reputation as a welcoming country for the best foreign students. And we still have to find a better way to balance the books for most institutions.

3. Artificial intelligence

The full impact of AI on higher education will not be felt for a few years, but 2025 showed the potential of AI as a future wrecking-ball for universities and colleges as we know them, unless they undergo rapid and existential change.

I came to this conclusion as a result of reviewing a set of AI tools developed by Contact North for students and instructors. I was perhaps too critical of these tools because they merely replaced what currently most instructors do in universities: develop curricula, deliver content, and assess students on comprehension and understanding. What the AI tools did not do was develop cognitive or social skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, collaborative learning or inter-personal communication. Nor did they suggest how faculty should change their teaching methods to accommodate these tools.

But on reflection that is just the point. At least in most undergraduate teaching, the AI tools I tested did just what most instructors do: choose, deliver and test content. If that is ALL university or college instructors do, AI will replace them. It is cheaper and more effective. This means that to keep their jobs – at least as instructors – they will need to help students build on their understanding of content (taught by AI) to analyse, problem-solve and communicate effectively.

Furthermore AI will improve. At the moment the predominant form of AI used in education is large language models. These are a very stupid and inefficient form of intelligence, based on blind probabilities and massive – and expensive – computing power, rather than on processes akin to human thinking. However, AI will improve and become more efficient. The Chinese are already developing AI tools such as DeepSeek that require far less computing power.

So the question is: what is the role of a human ‘teacher’ in a world of AI? The answer: It is to help students understand, for any particular set of topics, themes or problems, their respective roles with regard to AI: to understand and analyse what AI does best, and what they as expert humans need to add to AI capacities that AI does not do at any particular time in its development. This means that although they will still need to be experts in their subject area, college and university faculty will need to develop much more sophisticated teaching skills. AI will take care of (most of) the content delivery and assessment of understanding. At least at the moment, AI still struggles to handle the higher order learning skills of cognitive and critical thinking (although this too may change over time.)

This means, even at this point in time, we no longer need large lecture theatres – or lectures. This means university faculty radically re-thinking their role alongside AI. It will mean greater emphasis on teaching skills than content expertise (though good instructors will need to be good content experts as well to identify the strengths and weaknesses of AI tools within a particular subject domain.) 

So: are institutions ready for such radical change? This is not a problem for five years time, but for now. AI is here and will radically change higher education, for better or worse. We all need to learn how best to work with it.

Conclusion

I am not going to post this until I have asked Chat-GPT the same question, so that it will not incorporate my answer. I will then publish both versions at the same time, so you can compare. For the Chat-GPT answer, see https://www.tonybates.ca/2025/12/27/a-review-of-higher-education-in-2025-chat-gpts-response/