SNHU President Encourages Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education at HGSE Event

Southern New Hampshire University President Paul J. LeBlanc said universities should use artificial intelligence in classrooms at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Thursday.

LeBlanc, who now co-leads Matter and Space, an AI-powered education company, argued that academic institutions should equip their students with AI literacy skills.

“I’d encourage everyone to use AI as much as possible,” he said. “These are the skills you need to master in order to be competitive in the job market.”

“It makes no sense to me that you would ask students not to use the tools that will actually empower them and make them distinctive in the job search,” he added.

Southern New Hampshire University is the largest nonprofit online university in the United States. LeBlanc, who became president in 2003, spoke at the hybrid HGSE event on AI in higher education with Michael B. Horn, a HGSE adjunct lecturer.

“Maybe in the next few years, we will no longer be the most powerful entities on the planet when it comes to certain kinds of knowledge, knowledge making, knowledge processing,” LeBlanc said. “And if that’s true, then the question becomes, what is the purpose of learning?”

LeBlanc argued that there is a large gap between college graduates’ competency and the need for AI literacy in the job market.

“In one survey, something like 60 or 65 percent of classmates and university graduates said that they felt the university had not prepared them for the use of AI for the world of work,” he said. “Interestingly — coincidentally — in the same week, some 70 percent of employers said they would not hire somebody that didn’t possess skills.”

LeBlanc described the impact of AI on the job market as a “massive displacement” and “massive restructuring” of jobs. He compared the current struggle to adapt to AI as a “messy transition period” before “a golden age.”

“When I think about AI, I think a lot about who isn’t today served by our post secondary system, who can’t afford it or for whatever other reasons,” LeBlanc said. “The incumbent system doesn’t work.”

Horn added that at HGSE, he tries to think “cynically” about the school’s students and its “value proposition.”

“And then try to think about, ‘What are these other colleges and universities that serve very different populations in very different circumstances?’” Horn said.

“How can we use technology in radically different ways to help them make progress in their lives?” he added.

— Staff writer Tanya J. Vidhun can be reached at tanya.vidhun@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tanyavidhun.