Managing artificial intelligence ethics in higher education: A systematic framework for issues and policy recommendations

Kaşarcı İ., Akın Demircan Z., Çeliker Ercan G., İnci T.

IJCES : INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, cilt.4, sa.2, ss.112-137, 2025 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has raised significant
ethical and governance challenges. Despite growing scholarly attention, systematic
governance frameworks remain underdeveloped, creating a gap between rapid AI
adoption and institutional capacity to manage ethical implications. Guided by PRISMA
2020 guidelines, this systematic review synthesizes 55 peer-reviewed studies from Web
of Science (2022-2025) to examine: (1) ethical issues and risks, (2) governance
frameworks and policies, (3) governance gaps and limitations, and (4) evidence-based
recommendations. Findings reveal research predominantly focuses on individual-level
ethical awareness, with privacy, academic integrity, and algorithmic bias most frequently
addressed, while institutional governance studies remain scarce. Institutional responses
are primarily reactive and provisional rather than strategic. Five persistent governance
gaps were identified: limited governance capacity, fragmented coordination, low AI
ethics literacy, underrepresentation of equity perspectives, and weak evaluation
mechanisms. This study proposes four targeted recommendations: establishing
centralized governance committees, developing mandatory ethics literacy programs,
implementing systematic evaluation mechanisms, and ensuring equity-oriented
approaches. These findings underscore the need for institutions to transition from ad hoc
responses to comprehensive, integrated AI ethics frameworks that embed ethical
principles into their institutional strategy, ensuring the responsible and equitable use of
AI