Artificial Intelligence (AI) Integration in Rural Philippine Higher Education: Perspectives, Challenges, and Ethical Considerations

AI rapidly reshapes learning landscapes from highly industrialized countries to those that are still in development, such as the Philippines. However, limited studies have been conducted on how such AI tools are adopted and perceived by college students within a non-urban higher education context. This study fills the gap by investigating the adoption, perceptions, and ethical implications of AI tools among rural Philippine college students through a sequential explanatory mixed-method cross-section survey approach, drawing its base from 451 students in a rural state college in Cebu, Philippines, from May to June 2024. IBM SPSS version 26.0 was used to conduct the statistical analyses, while theme analyses were done using MAXQDA version 2020. Among the respondents, all had used AI tools, while the greater proportion of these students (78.54%) used ChatGPT. Further, the students strongly believed that AI was easy to use (M = 5.13; SD = ±1.58) and helpful in their learning (M = 5.17; SD = ±1.53). On the contrary, students were concerned about incorrect or biased information (M=5.35, SD=±1.40), impact on critical thinking (M=5.04, SD=±1.77), and potential for cheating (M=5.39, SD=±1.50) while utilizing these AI tools. Also, only 17.29% of the students knew its institutional policies regarding the use of AI. This study indicates the essentiality of creating clear institutional guidelines for the use of AI, devising programs on AI literacy, and revisiting the assumption about the digital divide in rural higher education institutions. These findings also have policy implications in view of curriculum development and ethics for integrating AI into higher education contexts and carve out a need for educational strategies that make use of the benefits offered through AI while actively cultivating students' critical thinking skills and academic integrity.