Artificial intelligence is not some future concept on college campuses. It is already there, sitting in dorm rooms, open on laptops, helping with outlines, research, and late night study sessions.
A new report from Coursera says 80 percent of students believe AI has positively supported their learning experience. Seventy percent think AI will improve exam performance and the overall quality of higher education. Those are not small numbers. Students are not just dabbling. Many are convinced these tools are helping them perform better.
And yet, believe it or not, only 20 percent of educators say their university has a formal AI policy. That gap should make administrators uncomfortable.
Coursera’s AI in Higher Education Report surveyed more than 4,200 university students and educators across the United States, United Kingdom, India, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. AI use is now nearly universal. Globally, 95 percent of students and educators report using AI tools in their academic work.
In the United States, 78 percent of educators and students say AI is having a positive impact on higher education. Still, half of U.S. respondents believe the system is unprepared to manage AI. Globally, 56 percent say their higher education system is not ready.
Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer at Coursera, said, “AI is delivering real benefits on campus, yet many institutions are still working to keep pace.” She also pointed out that with only a small share of U.S. universities reporting a formal AI policy, “there’s a clear need for stronger governance, faculty training, and thoughtful implementation.”
Students are using AI, but most say it has not completely taken over their workflow. Sixty-three percent report using AI for less than half of their academic tasks. Only 5 percent say they use AI for more than 80 percent of their work. Meanwhile, 7 percent of U.S. students say they do not use AI at all.
There is another side to this, however. Across markets, 65 percent believe unregulated AI could undermine degree credibility. Thirty-seven percent worry it will increase plagiarism. Forty percent of students see AI-related cheating as a significant threat. Among educators, confidence is limited. Only 27 percent say they feel confident identifying AI-generated content. Just 25 percent believe they and their peers have the skills needed to use AI effectively.
One number stands out: 24 percent of students admit to submitting AI-generated work without disclosure. That is not an edge case. That is a signal.
Only 28 percent of educators say AI literacy has been incorporated into the curriculum. So students are actively using these tools, sometimes without telling anyone, while institutions are still debating what the rules should be.
Globally, attitudes vary. Fifty-three percent of university students in India say AI positively impacts their studies. Sixty-nine percent of Mexican students say AI has improved their grades. In Saudi Arabia, 91 percent of students and educators report a positive overall impact.
Coursera, founded in 2012, now reports 197 million registered learners as of the end of 2025. The company says it offers academic integrity tools used across more than 13 million course completions, along with courses aimed at helping educators navigate generative AI in the classroom.
But the bigger issue is cultural, not technical. Look, if four out of five students believe AI improved their academic performance, universities cannot treat this as a passing phase. At the same time, if only one in five institutions has a formal AI policy, there is a governance vacuum forming in real time.
Students are adapting faster than the rulebook.
Colleges now face a choice. They can pretend AI is a problem to be stamped out, or they can build clear standards that acknowledge how deeply embedded it already is.
Either way, ignoring it is no longer an option.
