Values-Led Governance of Generative AI in Irish Higher Education: An Interpretive Analysis of National Focus-Group Findings

Abstract

This paper examines how Irish higher education is attempting to govern generative AI at a moment when practice is evolving faster than policy. Drawing on an interpretive analysis of the Higher Education Authority’s national consultation involving ten thematic focus groups and an institutional leadership summit held in early 2025, the study explores how staff, students, and sectoral leaders understand the pedagogical and ethical implications of large language models. The analysis re-reads the original coded transcripts through a governance lens, tracing how concerns about assessment, integrity, equity, and institutional readiness converge on deeper questions of educational purpose. Participants describe a sector marked by creativity and urgency but hampered by fragmented responses, uneven capacity, and uncertainty about how to translate shared values into coherent action. Attending to what is not said reveals further fault lines: environmental impact, labour conditions, research integrity, and commercial dependency remain largely absent from sectoral discourse despite their growing relevance. The paper argues that these omissions signal the need for a values-led governance framework capable of connecting policy, pedagogy, and infrastructure, and of sustaining reflexive, evidence-informed decision-making as technologies and practices change. Ireland’s small and interconnected system is well placed to pursue such an approach, balancing national coordination with institutional autonomy. By foregrounding the values that shape sectoral perspectives — and the silences that accompany them — the paper identifies the conditions required for responsible, educationally coherent adoption of generative AI.