Learn about best practices for integrating AI in universities—focused on equity, ethics, and student success.
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Announcing the Australian Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education
Dear colleagues,
I am delighted to announce the release of the Australian Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education, developed by the ACSES Visiting Scholar, Professor Jason Lodge and colleagues in collaboration with the Australian National AI in Schools Taskforce.
The Framework outlines both the transformative powers and potential challenges faced by the continued use of AI in higher education, with a central focus on the need to maintain equity and ethical innovation.
While AI technology is constantly advancing, the Framework addresses the immediate need for higher education institutions to maintain core principles such as human-centred learning and research integrity while investing in AI integration.
What does the Framework address?
Human-centred education: The use of AI in higher education institutions must be treated with caution to ensure human-centredness remains a core focus. Human connection, critical thinking, and equity must be prioritised.
Ethical and inclusive deployment: Ethical standards must be maintained when implementing or developing AI use in higher education. Universities and placement sites must ensure that the integration of AI benefits all students.
Policy development: A range of affected stakeholders—including government officials, academic staff, and students and active researchers, with an emphasis on those from diverse backgrounds—should collaborate in addressing key areas of higher education affected by AI and implement policies to address these areas.
Professional learning: Universities and professional bodies should strive to become more educated in AI advancements so that the implementation of such technology can be utilised to its full potential.
Integrity in research: The implementation of AI can lead to complications, such as when generative AI is used to produce and analyse data which can introduce errors. Policies and procedures must be designed to maintain academic integrity.
As we move forward, it is vital that the higher education sector works together to ensure that AI is a force for good—enhancing educational opportunities and outcomes for all students, rather than deepening existing divides.
The full Framework is available on the ACSES website, and I encourage you to read and share it within your networks.
Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to student equity and success.
Regards
Professor Shamit Saggar CBE FAcSS
Executive Director
Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success
Event recording now available
On 25 November, the ACSES team hosted an online meeting of the Community of Practice – a 2025 Year-End Exchange. A recording of the event is now available.
The event featured two presentations:
- Dr Jessica Hall from the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion at the University of Technology Sydney presented on the evaluation work undertaken to assess impact of the Eastern Australia Regional University Centre Partnership (EARUCP): an exciting collaboration between Regional University Study Hubs and Universities supporting place-based, community-led higher education outreach.
- A team from Deakin University: Alcy Meehan, Dr Tanita Botha, Peter Oslewski, Stephen Marshall, Tim Shea, and Amelia Searle discussed their collaboration building data infrastructure for equity programming at Deakin. The project involved deep knowledge sharing and capacity building across teams: Equity and Inclusion, Analytics and Insights, and the Office of Executive Dean Health (Biostatistics), with learnings relevant to the sector and to teams working in later stages of SEHEEF implementation.
Many thanks to the teams for sharing their work with us!
Seeking your feedback
The ACSES Trials and Evaluations team is currently seeking feedback from stakeholders.
The team is planning "Evidence Briefs", sharing learnings from each completed trial, and has prepared two separate exemplars for:
The team is also interested in your thoughts regarding knowledge sharing events, like the Equity Hub: Community of Practice, and how we can best support your work in 2026.
We would appreciate you taking some time to review the brief most relevant to your role and provide your feedback before Friday, 12 December.
Latest resources from ACSES
Education Data Sources—filter and find
We are pleased to share a new addition to our website: The Education Data Sources table.
This curated, sortable, and searchable table brings together 103 publicly available datasets across six key domains: schooling, higher education, VET, tertiary admission centres (TACs), post-school transitions, and population statistics—covering both national and state levels.
Each entry includes direct links to the original resources, making it easy for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to find and access the data they need.
The table was compiled by ACSES Visiting Scholar, Geoffrey Mitchell, and provides a comprehensive starting point for anyone seeking accessible education data and is available on the ACSES website.
ACSES Evaluation Learning Program
The first streams of the ACSES Evaluation Learning Program—a free, fully online training initiative designed to build evaluation capability for equity practitioners and others in the higher education sector—are now available.
The first streams available are on Introduction to Equity Evaluation and Program Logic Models for Equity Evaluation. Digital badges are awarded upon completion of each stream.
ACSES PLM Tool
The ACSES PLM Tool is an online app supporting equity program design and evaluation by building Program Logic Models (PLMs).
Program Logic Models are visual depictions of a program that help clarify the program intent, align resources and activities with intended outcomes, and assist in communicating with stakeholders. They form the core of program planning and evaluation by identifying the intended impacts this work should measure.
Built on the Student Equity in Higher Education Evaluation Framework (SEHEEF), the ACSES PLM Tool is intended to help universities map, at the program level, intended relationships between resources, activities, and the intended outcomes.
The tool includes the ability to create a PLM with individual university branding, with PLMs able to be exported in PDF version. Models can also be saved and reimported for future editing as programs change and evolve.
The tool is available on the Equity Hub website.
Indigenous Success: Senior Leadership Capability Building Modules open for enrolments
We're excited to announce that the course "Indigenous Success: Senior Leadership Capability Building Modules" is now available for fee-free enrolments.
Developed by Professor Peter J. Anderson, PhD, (University of New England (AU), formerly Griffith University) as part of his ACSES First Nations Fellowship, this free program includes six modules that aim to equip senior leaders with the knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to advance Indigenous education. The modules build upon institutional knowledge while developing broader strategic understanding, practical skills, and cultural competence, aiming to strengthen the capability of senior leaders to lead with confidence and cultural integrity.
Join the program today if you want to elevate your leadership skills and make a difference in Indigenous education.
ACSES in the News
- "Kildare university opens new national centre to promote inclusion in higher education", Kildare News
- "Academic Katriona O’Sullivan to head centre aimed at bringing disadvantaged students into higher education", Irish Examiner
- "Who gets to go to uni? Student equity through a global lens at WAHED 2025", Education Express
- "Balancing study with work: exploring the ‘payoff’ for students", Needed Now in Learning & Teaching
- "Snowy Valleys study hub to fight the brain drain", Tumut and Adelong Times
- "‘First in’ barriers", Glasshouse Country & Maleny News
- "Are the poor being priced out of Arts degrees?", The Westsider
- "More Aboriginal teachers are needed now!", The Australian Educational Researcher
