National AI Strategies and Higher Education in the Global South: Policy, Practice, and Power

This chapter examines how national artificial intelligence (AI) strategies are translated into higher education (HE) policy and practice across the Global South (GS), with particular attention to issues of equity, governance, and power. Drawing on cases from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and South Africa, this chapter explores how universities are positioned within national AI agendas and respond through fragmented policies, pedagogical experiments, administrative adoption, and partnerships. The analysis also highlights how structural constraints shape institutional responses and how Global North–developed AI intensifies concerns about autonomy, bias, and inequalities within and between HE systems. Situating these dynamics within the broader political economy of AI, this chapter shows how market concentration, industry influence, and North–South power relations shape both the possibilities and limits of AI integration in GS universities. It argues that meaningful, context-responsive AI adoption requires closer alignment between national strategies and institutional governance, sustained public investment, and equity-focused pedagogical frameworks that move beyond market-driven models of innovation.