Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Learning in Higher Education: Insights from Local Universities, Bangladesh
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/sajssh.2026.7507Keywords:
Artificial intelligence, AI-assisted learning, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4), Education sustainability, AI ethics in education, Student perceptions of AIAbstract
Artificial intelligence in higher education is increasingly seen as a way to meet learners' growing needs and make education more accessible. Despite global advances, understanding of the practical aspects of AI implementation in developing contexts like Bangladesh remains limited. In this work, we explore how students in local universities use AI tools, the potential benefits for sustainable learning, and the institutional and ethical challenges driving AI integration. Semi-structured interviews with students show that AI acts as a multi-purpose academic assistant: it helps with concept clarification, summarisation, academic writing, personalised feedback and self-paced learning. Users reported improved learning efficiency, higher academic achievement, and more independent study habits, suggesting AI's potential to promote SDG-related education sustainability. But the results also suggest impediments, such as inaccurate outputs, poor technological infrastructure, insufficient institutional support, teacher-level resistance, and deep privacy and ethical concerns, especially related to AI-morphed harassment and data abuse. Students underscored the need for formal AI education, clear ethical standards, better school infrastructure and organised classroom integration. It provides evidence-based, lived-experience-informed guidance on how Bangladeshi higher education institutions can responsibly use AI to develop sustainable, inclusive and future-ready learning systems.
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