OpenAI Widens ChatGPT Edu Deals With UNSW, Sydney, La Trobe and Adelaide as Universities Rewrite Assessment Rules
OpenAI has expanded partnerships with UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, La Trobe University and Adelaide University to give more students and staff access to tools such as ChatGPT Edu, IT Brief Australia reported on November 9. The deals pair wider access with changes to teaching and assessment and with training meant to help students use AI in their studies and prepare for work.
The announcement came with research commissioned by OpenAI. Its survey of 1,018 Australian university students found that 81% use AI several times a week and 33% use it several times a day. Some 79% wanted more chances to use advanced AI tools on real-world projects, 61% said AI skills would be essential in their chosen careers, and 28% said they had already built an AI agent or assistant to manage study, work or personal tasks.
UNSW is extending ChatGPT Edu in stages to more than 80,000 students and staff and plans to build generative AI foundations and Codex into courses. The University of Sydney is rolling out access after a trial and setting up a $1 million AI Sustainability Research and Innovation Fund. At La Trobe, all 3,500 staff already have access, and the university plans to extend it across its 45,000 students and staff. Its paramedicine program uses ChatGPT to generate clinical scenarios such as interpreting an ECG, and trainee teachers rehearse conversations with parents using a social robot called Fletch. Adelaide University is focusing on institutional and cyber security uses as it builds systems after its merger.
What it means in practice
The universities are also replacing blanket bans with clearer rules. UNSW’s Can, Can’t, Must framework lets educators say whether AI is permitted, prohibited or required for each task, while the University of Sydney assesses students’ own knowledge in supervised settings and asks them to show how they use AI in open assessments. La Trobe is adding Responsible and Safe AI modules for all students and AI skills in 50 priority first-year subjects. “AI should happen with us, not to us,” said Phil Laufenberg, La Trobe’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, AI, and Chief AI Officer.
The rollout builds on UNSW’s earlier campus-wide ChatGPT Edu partnership and comes shortly after education ministers agreed to restrict generative AI in primary schools and secondary assessments. What to watch is how quickly the staged access reaches students, whether other universities adopt similar assessment frameworks, and how institutions handle questions about relying on a single overseas AI provider.