Examining the use of ChatGPT in public universities in Hong Kong: a case study of restricted access areas

Abstract

Since late November 2022, generative AI ChatGPT has drawn waves of attention in society, and its impacts certainly extend to the higher education setting. Although ChatGPT has not been officially released for registration in Hong Kong, the higher education setting has been responding differently. The article conducted a systematic review of local newspapers published between 1 December 2022 and 31 July 2023 to analyse how the eight public universities in Hong Kong responded. This article divided the timeline into three phases: procrastination, remediation, and adaptation. Recommendations are given to universities for making policies and management based on the findings, including making timely but temporary announcements at the university level and updating course outlines that explicitly stated to what extent GenAI can be used in each course. This study used Hong Kong to serves as a reference for universities that are still struggling with the usage of ChatGPT and GenAI technologies in the restricted access areas.