HEARING RECAP: Owens Hearing on Higher Education in the Age of AI

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT) chaired the seventh hearing in a series examining artificial intelligence, titled “Building an AI-Ready America: Higher Education in the Age of AI.“

In his opening remarks, Chairman Owens began by acknowledging the seismic shift that AI represents across all institutions of higher education at every level and the need for thoughtful leadership grounded in a commitment to positive outcomes and learning.

“Our global competitors are investing heavily in AI and integrating it into their educational systems. Employers are building their operations around it. Higher education has both opportunity and obligation to help lead this transition rather than simply endure it.”

Rep. Owens questioned Mr. Jonathan Fozard, Chief Information Officer, Florida State University, on how industry partnerships with Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services bridge the gap between classroom learning and employer expectations.

Mr. Fozard: “These partnerships with companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon give students ubiquitous access across all disciplines — exposure to the tools in a secure and reliable way. Our framework is called RISE — built on Research, Instruction, Innovation, Security and compliance, and Engagement and student success. We feel our AI strategy must be built on those four pillars to be successful.”

Rep. Owens also questioned Dr. Dave Duke, Chief Product Officer for Higher Education at McGraw Hill, about how AI has affected the educational technology landscape.

Dr. Duke: “AI is now embedded in every daily workflow for students, instructors, and administrators. The vast majority of students are using artificial intelligence. Faculty adoption is uneven, but it is accelerating. Everyone from admissions counselors, financial aid representatives, other administrators are all using generative AI and the work that they do. Virtually every education infrastructure company, like McGraw-Hill has included AI-enabled products into their ecosystems. And so AI, as we sit here today, is now a requirement to provide the best learning possible.”

Finally, Owens questioned Mr. Michael B. Horn, Author and Adjunct Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, about the role of college in the age of AI.

Mr. Horn: “It’s incumbent upon colleges to do is really show the outcomes, the connection to the labor market value that we know that families are expecting as a requirement for jumping into college. That’s number one. And number two, show the relevance, the real-world connections, the programs that you just heard about at Florida State, real connections with employers will go a long way to showing that we have their interests at heart, and that’s incumbent on every college to make sure that those connections are clear.”

In his closing remarks, Chairman Owens reflected on the transformative potential of AI for America’s students, drawing on his own family’s legacy in education where both of his parents were educators, as inspiration for getting this moment right.

Owens: “I cannot wait to see the productivity we’re going to have from our kids coming into the future as they begin to understand how to apply critical thinking in this process…  We need people that are smart, that are passionate, that have the intelligence and the wisdom to know the difference — and to know that you can lean in and have this collaborative effort to make sure that we all grow as a country. This is a very important time for our country’s future.”

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