"Meanwhile, students are quietly bearing a cost that few are tracking: between $1,200 and $1,800 over four years in AI tool subscriptions that fragmented and unenforceable institutional policies have made necessary. Here's what a typical student experience looks like. Freshman fall semester: The composition professor bans ChatGPT even though the university has a site license. The biology lab recommends NotebookLM for research synthesis."
"As students progress, the costs compound. Statistics courses need IBM SPSS Statistics with AI features or Jupyter with premium compute, such as through a Google CoLab Pro subscription ($9.99 per month). Marketing classes require Canva Pro for design projects at $15 monthly. Capstone courses recommend Claude Pro at $20 monthly, or premium versions of research tools like Consensus or Elicit running anywhere from $10 to more than $40 per month."
University leaders are responding to AI with varied measures such as site licenses, task forces, and academic-honesty policies. Students often face a patchwork of course-level recommendations and bans that require multiple paid subscriptions. A freshman may encounter bans, required tools, and recommended paid services across writing, biology, math, and computer science classes. Costs accumulate through statistics, marketing, capstone, and research courses requiring premium AI-enabled tools and compute. The $1,200–$1,800 four-year subscription burden is financially significant for many students. Policy fragmentation and policy stall are undermining educational equity and institutional mission.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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