Academic Opening, 22 September 2026

VUB is firmly committed to AI literacy and authentic education

22/09/2026

Thinking must not be subordinated to AI.

Brussels, 22 September 2026 – What does university education look like in an age when artificial intelligence can write texts, programme software and analyse complex data in a matter of seconds? At the start of the new academic year, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is making a firm commitment to an educational policy in which AI is given a fully-fledged role, but in which students remain in control of their own thinking and learning process.

This was announced today by Rector Jan Danckaert during the VUB’s Academic Opening. In his opening address , ‘Artificial Age. Authentic Education’, he sets out four commitments for the education of the future: every VUB graduate will be AI-literate; degree programmes will be critically redesigned; assessments will be adapted to the AI era; and the VUB aims to prevent access to powerful AI from creating new educational inequalities.

“The opposite of authentic education is not artificial intelligence. The opposite of authentic education is artificial learning: producing a convincing result without having learnt anything,” says Rector Jan Danckaert. “AI may take over cognitive work from us. But never our intellectual responsibility.”

Every graduate AI-literate

The VUB wants every student, regardless of their degree programme, to graduate with sufficient AI literacy. According to the rector, this goes far beyond learning to work with a chatbot or writing effective prompts. Students must understand what AI systems are capable of, what their results are based on, where they fail, and what interests may lie behind them. They must be able to recognise hallucinations, distortions and false certainty, and know when AI is and is not suitable.

According to the VUB, this AI literacy must become part of the academic training in every degree programme. A doctor will therefore acquire different AI skills to a lawyer, engineer, historian or philosopher.

Rethinking curricula, not simply adding AI

The VUB does not want to simply superimpose AI onto existing degree programmes and curricula. Programmes must reassess which knowledge students themselves need to master, which tasks can be supported by AI, and which human competences will actually become more important as technology becomes more powerful.

According to the rector, this evolution does not make in-depth subject knowledge any less important; on the contrary, it makes it even more important. After all, those with insufficient knowledge will find it difficult to assess whether an AI-generated answer is correct, relevant or complete.

In addition to subject-specific knowledge, skills such as problem formulation, experimentation, interdisciplinary thinking, creativity, ethical considerations and responsibility are becoming increasingly important. An entrepreneurial mindset – in the broadest sense of the word – is also becoming more important in a labour market that is constantly changing. Graduates will need to be creative and innovative, but also socially minded and responsible.

From AI detection to demonstrable learning

The way in which students are assessed must also change. The VUB does not wish to assess solely the end product, but also to make the learning and research process transparent. Students must be able to demonstrate the choices they made, the sources and resources they used, how they verified their results, and what their own intellectual contribution was. Transparency regarding the use of AI will thus become part of academic integrity.

The rector does not want AI detection software to form the basis of the assessment policy. The debate regarding the reliability and capabilities of such systems is still in full swing. According to the Vice-Chancellor, the central issue is therefore not the extent to which AI has generated content, but rather what a student has learnt and whether they can demonstrate this.

The VUB has already systematically incorporated the impact of generative AI into its educational policy. For example, more than 4,600 course module descriptions were screened and the assessment methods for all courses analysed for their risk of AI-related fraud. The next step is to bring these initiatives together into a single coherent policy on generative AI within the university’s future overall strategic plan.

AI must not become a new social privilege

At the same time, the VUB wishes to avoid AI creating new inequalities among students. After all, powerful AI applications can offer a significant individual advantage if only those students who can afford them have access to the best models and applications. Some students would thus have access to a high-performance personal tutor, language or research assistant, whilst others would have to make do with less powerful systems.

The VUB has therefore decided to set up an AI café in the Learning and Innovation Centre (LIC) where students can work with high-performance AI models.

According to the rector, AI can also be used to provide individual support to students, for example as a personal tutor that tailors exercises and feedback to individual strengths and weaknesses. However, this should never replace human guidance.

Technology as a tool, people as a compass

Beyond these four commitments, the VUB faces a broader question: which human competencies are becoming even more important in an AI-driven world?

The rector identifies five essential human competencies: critical thinking and judgement, creativity and imagination, collaboration and dialogue, ethics and the search for meaning, and the courage to examine a conviction and, if necessary, to revise it.

The humanities and social sciences also have a crucial role to play in this, not as an afterthought to technological innovation, but as full partners in shaping a world in which technology is ubiquitous.

“Thinking must not be subsumed by AI,” emphasises Danckaert. “Free thinking today means that we do not automatically believe what AI articulates with great persuasiveness. It means asking further questions. Checking sources. Exposing assumptions. And ultimately taking a stand ourselves.”

The VUB therefore does not wish to return to a world without artificial intelligence. On the contrary: the university wants to experiment and pioneer, whilst at the same time setting higher standards for human knowledge, judgement and responsibility.