What Is a University Degree Still Worth?

I have been researching technology-enhanced innovation in learning for around 25 years. And yes: the AI tools that are now so readily available are remarkable. They accelerate processes, inspire, and open up new possibilities. At the same time, they are unsettling some things that matter just as much to me: deep learning, academic integrity, and the question of what a university degree actually stands for anymore.

A few observations make me uneasy.

Among academics, I increasingly hear a sense of relief when their own children choose a skilled trade — preferably electrical work. By contrast, they are sometimes advised against studying mathematics or computer science. That is new.

For many people, studying is barely affordable without a part-time job. Those who go straight into employment start earning money and gaining experience earlier. This makes the question all the more legitimate: what do you actually gain in return for spending several years at university?

My older children tell me about courses in which they are expected to use AI for project work — and afterwards feel that they have “not really learned anything properly", but have instead just “cobbled something together".

In one of my courses, a Claude skill based on my own materials supports students in writing their final paper. I am glad this was shown to me transparently: I now expect papers that meet the criteria reasonably well. But the examinations become considerably more uncomfortable — how else am I supposed to find out what the students actually did, decided, and formulated themselves?

And of course, this does not only concern students. AI is also being used in research and publishing — and corners are being cut there too. AI-generated books, fabricated references, and an already problematic system of publishing and academic recognition do little to strengthen the credibility of science. Publications themselves are also becoming less meaningful as evidence of scholarly achievement.

And it is precisely now that Austrian universities are facing budget cuts — potentially in exactly those areas where we need more resources: mid-level academic staff, student support, teaching, and the development of new forms of assessment.

This is about more than the self-preservation of universities. Education is a prerequisite for independent opinion-forming and for democratic societies. And good practical work also requires knowledge, understanding, and sound judgement.

So what should we do? A great deal — and we need to start now. What should people learn in the future, and how? How do we assess competence when good results can be produced with AI support at any time? How should research, research funding, publishing, and academic recognition work in the future?

If we want a university degree to continue to stand for something, we need people, time, rules, and resources. I want to be able to recommend university study to young people with conviction again. Not because everything should stay as it was. Quite the opposite.

Postgenerative.at addresses signs of these changes and the questions they raise. These are not side issues. They go to the heart of what universities will be in the years ahead.

If we want a university degree to continue to stand for something, we need people, time, rules, and resources. I want to be able to recommend university study to young people with conviction again. Not because everything should stay as it was. Quite the opposite.