Call for Chapters

Higher Education, AI, and Ethics: Challenges and Prospects for Student Flourishing
in the Academy

Series: World Issues in Theory and Philosophy of Higher Education

Overview
You are invited to submit chapter proposals for a planned edited Volume with Routledge
entitled Higher Education, AI, and Ethics: Problems & Prospects for Student Flourishing
in the Academy. This edited collection of chapters brings together critical and diverse
perspectives on the profound ethical, pedagogical, and societal questions arising from
the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education (HE).

Context and Rationale
Universities face unprecedented political, economic, and social pressures, with their
role as institutions for the public good increasingly under strain. Among the most urgent
challenges is the integration of AI into teaching, learning, and research. From questions
of authorship and authenticity to wider societal concerns about trust, equity, and
democracy, the implications of AI demand collective and global attention.

This volume addresses pressing concerns at the intersection of AI, ethics, and higher
education, including:

• AI’s impact on authorship, intellectual labour, and academic integrity.
• Transparency, accountability, and the ethics of AI-assisted learning.
• Challenges of detection in evaluation processes and the erosion of trust in the
teacher-student relationship.
• Fragmented and inadequate institutional responses.
• Broader social dangers, including diminished critical thinking, weakened
democracy, and reinforcement of inequalities.

While much discourse on AI in HE is either optimistic (policy-driven, innovationfocused) or sceptical (philosophical critique), there has been little sustained, integrative attention as to how AI reshapes conditions for student flourishing and academic life.

This volume seeks to fill that gap.

In putting this volume together, the editors want to produce a text that imaginatively
addresses whether and, if so, how, students may be enabled to flourish in an AI-driven
environment; and also how the total (pedagogical, institutional environment) might be
reimagined so as to enhance that flourishing on the part of students and staff. We look
for contributions that are – appropriately – philosophically and theoretically informed
but which are highly accessible, and which draw out practical implications and
possibilities. Contributors are asked to bear in mind these ambitions for the volume.

Themes and Key Questions
Contributors are invited to engage with a number of theoretical and conceptual
questions, many of which can be informed by empirical work, including but not only:
• What does it mean to be a student in the age of AI?
• How does AI affect academic integrity, trust, and the pedagogical relationship?
• What is lost or gained in processes of cognitive outsourcing (of thinking)?
• How should assessment practices and curricula respond to AI-driven change?
• What responsibilities do universities have in shaping ethical AI use?
• To what extent does AI reproduce or exacerbate inequalities, surveillance, and
power asymmetries?
• How does AI affect culture, democracy, and the capacity for critical thought in a
time of global crises?

Structure of the Volume
The collection will be structured in three parts:
Part I – Ethics and Integrity
Explores ethical tensions at the heart of AI use in higher education, including
authenticity, academic virtues, and the conditions for student agency and flourishing.
Part II – Learning, Pedagogy, and Assessment
Focuses on the impact of AI on learning processes, trust between educators and
students, cognitive processes, and the need for re-imagining pedagogical relationships
and assessment practices.
Part III – Society, Culture, and Democracy
Considers broader implications for society, including the erosion of trust, technoutopianism, exacerbation of inequality, possible lessening of critical thinking and AI’s
role in shaping (or diminishing) culture and democratic life.

Submission Guidelines
• Abstracts: 300–400 words (plus 4–6 keywords).
• Author biography: 100–150 words (including affiliation, ORCID ID where
relevant).
• Referencing: Harvard style (please include 5-8 references so as to indicate the
intellectual location of the contribution to come).
• Optional: A mini-abstract (150+ words) may be submitted for early editorial
feedback before the full deadline for abstracts (12 January 2026).

Timeline
• 12 January 2026 – Abstract submission deadline
• 31 March 2026 – Notification of acceptance/rejection
• 30th April 2026 – (Submission of proposal to series editors, including selected
chapter outlines)
• 31 October 2026 – Full chapter submission (6,000–7,000 words).

Submission and Contact
Please submit abstracts and bios to: e.mountbatten-omalley@bathspa.ac.uk, with
‘cc’ to s.hayes@bathspa.ac.uk; ron.barnett@ucl.ac.uk.

In submitting your abstract, please indicate the section in which you feel your
contribution would best fit.

We look forward to bringing together a diverse, international community of scholars and
practitioners to contribute to this conversation in the nexus of higher education, AI, and
ethics at this critical time.

The Editorial Team
Dr Eri Mountbatten-O’Malley (Bath Spa University), Professor Sarah Hayes (Bath Spa
University), Professor Ronald Barnett (University College London).