On Sept. 18, Students’ Union (SU) President Gabriela Dziegielewska and Vice President Academic Zoe Zeritsch spoke to the Government of Alberta’s Expert Panel on AI Impacts on Labour Markets and Educational Post-secondary Outcomes concerning various issues regarding AI use at the University of Calgary.
The panel is a provincial government initiative established in late May 2026 as an endeavour towards Goal 4 of the Alberta 2030 Strategy. The strategy focuses on transforming Alberta’s workforce by the year 2030 by strengthening postsecondary institutions and equipping Albertans with access to the training and experience they need.
Goal 4 in particular aims to “strengthen internationalization.” According to the Alberta 2030 Strategy’s website, this goal intends to promote Alberta as a “leading destination for top talent” across a variety of fields.
The panel is in the process of collecting information from various stakeholders affected by legislative action on AI in postsecondary education. They expect to have a completed report on their findings by the end of 2026.
They state that they intend to explore the effects of AI in the postsecondary system when it comes to both operational efficiencies and educational outcomes, emphasizing impacts on the labour market as more students graduate and enter the workforce having used AI throughout their higher education.
The University of Calgary’s SU provided the panel with eight recommendations for their consideration.
The first is to “avoid adoption for adoption’s sake.” According to the SU, finding out whether there is a genuine need for AI tools in postsecondary institutions is a priority.
“New technology in learning is not always useful, or even helpful. We urge the expert panel to emphasize less whether AI can be used in education and more on whether educators and students express a genuine need for it,” reads the SU’s summary fact sheet.
The SU referenced a 2025 survey that found that “73 per cent of Canadian students now incorporate AI tools in their studies while 77 per cent want their institutions to offer AI training.”
The same survey found that 64 per cent of students are “concerned about entering the job market as AI eliminates entry-level roles” and 48 per cent said their “critical thinking skills have deteriorated since they started using AI.”
The SU also referenced a global survey from the Digital Education Council stating that “55 per cent of North American faculty fear that AI “poses a serious risk” to education, while 42 per cent of students feel that AI in the classroom does not enhance their learning.”
The SU recommended creating a provincewide AI literacy framework that would help standardize understandings of the capabilities and limitations of the technology. Also on the list was the SU’s recommendation for employers to compensate postsecondary institutions for AI training.
Academic evaluation and grading were addressed, with the SU recommending that students should be able to opt out of using AI tools in the classroom and that postsecondary institutions should be prohibited from using AI tools to grade assessments.
The issue of data protection and privacy was discussed in the recommendations, stating that AI tools used on campus for academic purposes should be locally hosted.
Furthermore, the SU suggested disclosure of whether or not certain AI implementations were reviewed for institutional use and easier channels for students to report improper usage, as well as clarity in student materials as to when and where AI is used, if at all.
As their final recommendation, the SU encouraged the panel to consider accessibility and student wellbeing, cautioning against its use in services that promote student wellbeing on campus.
No representatives from the SU were available for comment at the time of writing.
However, only a press release was provided to the Gauntlet, and their submission and fact sheet are available on the SU website.
