In December 2024, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research launched an ambitious mission: to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the teaching practices of French public higher education..
Six months later, the report entitled «AI and higher education: Training, structuring and appropriation by society».», co-sponsored by François Taddei (founder and president of the Learning Planet Institute) and Frédéric Pascal (director of’DataIA Institute and Vice President IA of’Paris-Saclay University) - accompanied by Emilie-Pauline Gallié and Marc de Falco, the co-rapporteurs - provides a lucid assessment of the situation and proposes structuring actions to ensure that higher education becomes a central player in the learning society in the age of AI.
The results of the AI mission and the report were presented on July 10, 2025, at the French Ministry of Education, in the presence of Elisabeth Borne, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research, and Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education and Research.
AI, a catalyst for transformation in higher education
The massive arrival of so-called “generative” AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Mistral, etc.) is revolutionizing teaching, learning, assessment and administration methods.
The report «AI and higher education: Training, structuring and appropriation by society».» points out that, in the absence of an appropriate framework and infrastructure, the use of these tools remains highly heterogeneous and largely driven by individual initiatives.
In response, six major actions are proposed:
- Pooling resources content, skills, calculation capabilities, best practices, to promote equitable access to AI and reduce inequalities between schools.
- Massive training These include raising awareness among all students and staff, adapting training courses to new skills and training teachers.
- Experimenting with AI and making it your own To encourage pilot projects in teaching and administration, and create a research-action program.
- Transforming higher education establishments (ESS): redefine the role of teachers, strengthen university democracy, create third places to encourage citizen appropriation of AI.
- Developing sovereign technical solutions : data centers, Access to open, frugal European models, fair contracts with suppliers.
- A coordinated national policy : via an «AI, Education and Society» Institute to steer this strategy as a whole.
These orientations are in line with inclusion, cognitive justice, digital sovereignty and environmental responsibility. They aim to enable a critical, ethical and effective adoption of AI.
A new pact for the learning society
SSEs, with their 3 million students, multidisciplinary skills and societal mission, are called upon to become places of experimentation and transformation in the AI era. According to the two researchers, failure to grasp these issues would create a serious gap between training and societal realities, incomprehensible to students.
Their report calls for catching up on the delays accumulated in previous digital transitions, so as not to be left behind, technologically and geopolitically.
The funding required is estimated at between €300 and €500 million over five years.
In conclusion, the mission led by F. Taddei and F. Pascal does not call for a simple technological adjustment, but for a collective reinvention of higher education. AI at the service of all, both a lever for transformation and a challenge for emancipation, to build a fairer, more learning and more sovereign society.
Going further
- Read the full report AI and higher education: Training, structuring and appropriation by society
- TheDataIA Institute University of Paris-Saclay
