Cross-National Perceptions of Generative AI in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of University Students in the UK and Turkey

Abstract

This study provides a comparative analysis of university students’ perceptions and usage of Generative AI (GenAI) in two distinct educational environments: the United Kingdom (UK) and Turkey. Data were collected from approximately 300 students in each country using the Generative AI Student Perception and Experience Index (GEN-AI SPEX) survey. This instrument is designed to holistically measure student interactions with GenAI by capturing their usage patterns, perceptions of benefits and challenges, and future expectations. The findings reveal a shared consensus on GenAI’s efficiency and its inevitable impact on future society and employment. However, significant cross-national differences emerge in practical application and critical evaluation. Turkish students report higher usage of GenAI for direct academic tasks like homework and essay writing, positioning them as ‘pragmatic adopters’. This term describes users who prioritize the immediate efficiency and task-completion benefits of the technology over a deeper evaluation of its output’s accuracy. In contrast, UK students exhibit greater skepticism regarding the reliability of GenAI outputs and are more hesitant to see it as a substitute for human instructors, acting as ‘critical evaluators’. This profile characterizes users who actively question the reliability of AI-generated content, valuing accuracy and contextual appropriateness more than speed. Statistical analysis using the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test confirms that these differences are significant across multiple perceptual sub-domains. The study concludes that a one-size-fits-all approach to GenAI integration in higher education is inadequate, highlighting the need for context-aware policies that foster critical AI literacy while harnessing the technology’s benefits. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence to enrich the under-explored literature on cross-national perceptions of Generative AI in higher education.

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