SRHE Members must log-in to access member registration rates. University of Edinburgh staff and students are welcome to attend this event free of charge. To book your free place, please ensure that you register using your University of Edinburgh e-mail address.

This event is jointly organised by the SRHE Digital University Network and Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh.

Facilitated and chaired by: Dr Janja Komljenovic who is the co-convenor of the Digital University Network. For more details about the network and its activities, please click here.

Overview

This event explores how human rights can meaningfully shape AI governance in higher education and research. It considers higher education broadly, including teaching, learning, research, knowledge dissemination and academic work, and frames the discussion through the "post-AI condition": an environment shaped by socio-technical, legal, political-economic and cultural dynamics in which AI is omnipresent, policy and regulation struggle to keep pace with Big Tech and Big AI, and human rights are challenged. The event adopts a human rights approach to AI governance as a fundamental layer through which AI affects universities, students, academics, researchers and democratic knowledge systems. Contributions address academic labour and procurement governance, public AI and the rights to science and education, data privacy and citizens' agency, and the role of higher education institutions in shaping accountable AI.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Janja Komljenovic, University of Edinburgh. Janja Komljenovic is Senior Lecturer in Education Futures at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the political economy of higher education and the digitalisation, datafication and platformisation of universities, intersecting economic sociology, science and technology studies, and higher education research. She has published internationally on higher education policy, higher education markets and educational technology, consults on international higher education policy projects, serves as an evaluator for national quality assurance agencies, and is a member of committees within international organisations. She directs the MSc Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh and is a Coordinating Editor for Higher Education.

Ayça Atabey, University of Edinburgh. Ayça Atabey is a lawyer and multidisciplinary researcher working on AI governance and human-centred design of AI with a focus on data and human rights of children and young people. She is a certified data privacy and management expert in the EU and UK. She currently works as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh, at the intersection of data protection law, education and human-computer interaction, focusing on fairness and ethical data practices in AI-EdTech design. She has worked with NGOs, international organisations and research institutions, including UN Women, Council of Europe, 5Rights Foundation, Digital Futures for Children centre, LSE and Alan Turing Institute, most recently focusing on co-designing responsible GenAI practices for and with students and rights-respecting AI regulation.

Klaus D. Beiter, North-West University. Klaus D. Beiter is a Research Professor in the Faculty of Law at North-West University. He holds law degrees from the University of South Africa and a doctorate in international human rights law from the University of Munich. He has taught International Human Rights Law, Intellectual Property Law, Socio-Economic Rights and International Social Justice in Germany, the UK and South Africa. His research focuses on the right to science, academic/scientific freedom, the right to education, IP law and creators' rights, and law and development. He is a member of the South African Academy of Science and an ad hoc consultant to UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Council.

Aída Ponce Del Castillo, European Trade Union Institute. Aída Ponce Del Castillo is a lawyer and bioethicist and a senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels. Her research focuses on science, emerging technologies and governance, with particular attention to ethical, social and legal implications. She leads foresight projects on the future of work and technological transformation, examining how technological systems are translated into governance and how they shape working conditions, decision-making and accountability. She is a member of the committee for Belgium's National Convergence Plan for the Development of AI and participates in OECD working parties on biotechnology, nanotechnology, converging technologies and AI governance.