A history professor says AI didn't break college — it exposed how broken it already was

The landscape of higher education is undergoing a significant reckoning. Steven Mintz, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, made a startling observation while reviewing 400 student essays: the similarities among them were striking. The identical sentences, structures, and conclusions raised important questions about the educational system's integrity. In a candid LinkedIn post, Mintz argued that this phenomenon isn't merely a crisis of cheating but rather a crisis of pedagogy. He noted that universities have functioned like factories, characterized by mass lectures, standardized prompts, and grading systems managed by overburdened teaching assistants. What has been branded as mentorship, he contended, is more akin to "industrialized education." According to Mintz, AI has merely exposed the inadequacies of this model. "Machines can already accomplish most tasks we assign to students — and often outperform them," Mintz expressed on LinkedIn. He emphasized that when 400 students can produce nearly identical essays in mere seconds, the issue lies not with the students but with the assignments themselves. In correspondence with Business Insider, Mintz declared that traditional take-home essays have become obsolete, as they now assess skills that AI has mastered: research, contextual understanding, and argument construction. Mintz has shifted his approach, moving away from outside-class essays to more interactive forms of assessment. These include in-class writing tasks, oral presentations without extensive notes, and student-led discussions. He argues for a system where all assessments are conducted in person, eliminating graded assignments outside the classroom. He envisions a future where AI manages what he calls "mastery learning," which encompasses essential facts, timelines, and conceptual frameworks. This shift would allow students to concentrate on "inquiry learning," encouraging them to formulate questions and develop sophisticated arguments. Mintz insists that educational institutions must emphasize timeless literacies such as research, writing, numeracy, and critical reading, but in ways that foster creativity and independent thought. He cautions that if universities persist with the status quo, public trust in higher education and the value of degrees will diminish. For Mintz, AI serves as a reflective tool, revealing how heavily universities have leaned on mechanical learning and how far they have strayed from fundamental educational principles. He recently stated, "AI doesn't threaten to dehumanize higher education; it unveils how thoroughly we've already dehumanized it — and offers us a final opportunity to reclaim what we've lost." As he looks to the future, Mintz believes the next five years must be a transformative period for the education sector. He advocates for reinventing assessments and introducing courses focused on deep reading, critical questioning, ethical challenges, historical reasoning, data literacy, and innovative problem-solving. "We need to invest in seminars, mentorship, undergraduate research, and experiential learning," he urged. Colleges now stand at a crossroads: they can either reinforce surveillance and standardization or innovate in ways that machines cannot replicate. "This is our moment to redesign — not defend — the future of learning," he concluded on LinkedIn.