Why higher education is still needed in the age of AI — minister explains

Tengrinews.kz — Artificial intelligence is already changing the way people acquire knowledge, but it is still too early to give up on higher education. Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek explained why he believes universities remain essential.
At a government briefing, journalists asked the minister to comment on the view that, amid the rapid development of technology, higher education is becoming unnecessary and that deep industry-specific knowledge can be acquired while still at school.

“This is a very profound question. In fact, the international academic community is now debating why higher education is needed at all and how relevant knowledge itself remains,” the minister began.

According to Nurbek, besides professional knowledge, universities give people things that cannot be acquired in other ways.

“Higher education provides other very important aspects of functioning in modern society. These include socialization, the ability to work in a team, communication, and, more broadly, the ability to coexist within a certain social environment. It also shapes the structure of one’s thinking,” he said.

Speaking about the development of artificial intelligence, the minister acknowledged that debates over the value of education are only intensifying. At the same time, in his view, the effectiveness of working with AI directly depends on the depth of a person’s own thinking.

“Ultimately, it all comes down to the depth and structure of a person’s thinking. Even now, there is serious discussion about how well a person can use artificial intelligence as a kind of mirror. Simply put, it depends on how clearly you can formulate a task and how deeply and broadly you can express what you want to get as a result,” he noted.

Summing up, the minister stressed that despite all the debate, the importance of higher education is not diminishing.

“These debates will continue; they are eternal. But speaking as a minister, I can tell you that higher education is necessary. Without it, the further development of society and the economy is impossible.”