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Board pack · Universities and colleges

The AI questions for your next board meeting.

Six questions for the boards of universities and colleges, with the regulators and duties they answer to. Table it, ask each question, and note which answers your organisation could evidence today.

The six questions.

  1. Where is AI already used across admissions, marking, learning analytics and student services, and which of those uses make solely automated decisions affecting students' outcomes or access?
  2. How do we satisfy ourselves that AI in admissions and risk-flagging does not disadvantage students with protected characteristics, and have we evidenced this for the Public Sector Equality Duty?
  3. Have Data Protection Impact Assessments been completed for AI tools that process special-category student, applicant and staff data, and are the Article 22 oversight and challenge safeguards real rather than tokenistic?
  4. What is our position on academic integrity in the age of generative AI, and how reliable and contestable are any AI-detection tools we rely on to accuse a student?
  5. For provision involving under-18 or vulnerable learners, how do our AI tools interact with our Keeping Children Safe in Education safeguarding and online-safety duties?
  6. Can we demonstrate to the Office for Students that our use of AI protects academic standards and the student experience, and who on the board owns that assurance?

What your board answers to.

  • Office for Students (OfS)

    Statutory conditions of registration on quality and student outcomes mean the board must show AI in teaching and assessment does not erode the integrity of qualifications.

  • Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)

    Custodian of the UK Quality Code and the Academic Integrity Charter, which shape how AI is allowed into marking, proctoring and assessment design.

  • Information Commissioner's Office / UK GDPR

    Article 22 limits on solely automated decisions and the duty to complete a DPIA govern AI in admissions, learning analytics and student services.

  • Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 (DfE)

    Statutory safeguarding duties extend to college provision for under-18s, so AI chatbots, monitoring and content tools must not create online-safety harms.

  • Equality Act 2010 / Public Sector Equality Duty

    AI in admissions, marking support and risk-flagging can embed bias, making fair access a board-level legal duty rather than an ethical aim.

Want to know how your board would answer before the meeting? The Board AI Scorecard scores the five areas these questions test, in about two minutes.