Reimagining Higher Education in The Age of Chatgpt: A Pakistani Case Study

Abstract

The rapid arrival of ChatGPT has unsettled long-standing practices of teaching, assessment and research in universities, yet little is known about how academics in developing-country contexts experience this change. This qualitative case study explored university teachers’ perceptions of the benefits, challenges and coping strategies associated with ChatGPT in Pakistani higher education. Guided by the interpretivist paradigm and a theoretical framework combining the Technology Acceptance Model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Diffusion of Innovations theory and the TPACK framework, the study used semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with six purposively selected social sciences teachers at a public university in Punjab, all of whom were regular users of ChatGPT. Data were analyzed through Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis with the support of NVivo. Participants valued ChatGPT for transforming educational practice, assisting academic writing and literature searching, generating research ideas, saving time, supporting English–Urdu translation and enabling global communication and collaboration. At the same time, they raised concerns about plagiarism, students’ overdependence, fabricated references and inaccurate content, limited usefulness for methodology and complex research, and the erosion of traditional research and learning skills. To address these challenges, participants recommended AI literacy and ethics training, routine plagiarism checks, teachers’ ability to distinguish AI-generated from human writing, clear legal and institutional frameworks for AI use, inclusive access for all learners, and the integration of AI into teaching without supplanting reasoning. The study concludes that ChatGPT can strengthen Pakistani higher education when it is adopted as a supplement to, rather than a substitute for, human thinking, supported by clear policy, teacher training and redesigned assessment.