A new survey from edtech company Chegg shows that South Africans in tertiary education are cautiousless embracing generative AI tools.While generally happy, most students say they struggle to find new friends, meet people and get much sleep.
Why would Chegg care? The company has been working on its own generative AI chatbot aimed squarely at helping students with their educations in the hopes ofThe survey results are based on the polling of over 11 000 undergraduate students aged 18-21 years across 15 countries, including 503 students in South Africa. Questions in this survey covered students’ views on learning in the age of AI, skills and careers, and their health, wellbeing and social attitudes.
The survey did not include a question on how many use generative AI tools to write their assignments for them, a problem that is currently “Although students are starting to adopt GenAI to support their learning, it’s clear they see room for improvement. Students want GenAI learning tools that provide accurate, reliable study support. Crucially, according to our survey, the top priority for improving the technology among all those surveyed in South Africa was the involvement of human expertise.
It found that one in two South African students struggles to make new friends and meet people, while two out of three say they do not sleep enough and experience daily feelings of anxiety. Concerningly, over half of the 503 local undergraduates surveyed said they have experience academic burnout.