81% of Australian students use AI weekly as universities respond

An OpenAI-commissioned survey found that 81% of 1,018 Australian university students already use AI several times a week, with 33% using it multiple times each day.

Pureprofile surveyed 1,018 students aged 18 and over across Australia, studying on campus or remotely, from 3–7 August 2026. OpenAI commissioned the research.

UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, La Trobe University and Adelaide University are collaborating with OpenAI to give students and staff access to advanced AI tools.

OpenAI says students already use AI to investigate ideas, build assistants and turn concepts into working prototypes. The universities are also writing frameworks for where and how AI can be used in learning and assessment. The policy stakes sit in preserving subject knowledge and professional judgment while access expands.

What do students expect from their universities?

Pureprofile's survey produced the following results:

• 81% of respondents use AI several times a week.
• 33% use AI multiple times each day.
• 28% have built an AI agent, or software that performs tasks on their behalf, to manage studies, work or personal life.
• 79% want their university to offer more opportunities to use advanced AI tools on real-world projects.
• 79% are interested in applying AI to challenges in health, climate, science or cyber security.
• 61% believe AI skills will be essential to success in their chosen career.
• 69% believe AI literacy, meaning the ability to understand and apply AI, will become as fundamental as digital literacy, writing or numeracy.
• 65% believe AI skills will give Australian graduates an advantage in the global workforce.
• 76% are interested in starting a company or working for themselves.
• 68% believe AI would make it easier to start a business.

Those findings connect tool access to employment expectations and entrepreneurial activity. Survey respondents already treat AI as routine study infrastructure, yet the universities' planned programs differ in scale, timing and academic purpose.

How are universities widening access?

UNSW Sydney

UNSW is bringing ChatGPT Edu to more than 80,000 students and staff in stages, working toward availability across the student community. The university and OpenAI plan to integrate generative AI foundations, or software that produces content, and Codex into educational programs and courses.

UNSW says students will gain practical work through hackathons and industry projects. The collaboration will also connect students with internships, graduate roles and startup networks.

Nalin Iyer, an UNSW Master of IT student, put the workforce question plainly: “It’s important to understand what industry is looking for and how AI fits into that.”

The University of Sydney

The University of Sydney will provide students and staff with supported ChatGPT Edu access, training and guidance. Its staged rollout opens to all students in Semester 1, 2027, following a trial.

The university is also establishing a $1 million AI Sustainability Research and Innovation Fund to study and advance sustainability.

La Trobe University

La Trobe has already given all 3,500 staff access to ChatGPT Edu. Universal access for its 45,000 students and staff is planned for the first quarter of 2027.

Its curriculum plan includes Australia’s first Bachelor of AI Engineering (Honours), which will welcome its first cohort in 2027, and Australia's first AI MBA program. La Trobe also appointed Phil Laufenberg as Australia’s first Pro Vice-Chancellor AI and Chief AI Officer, a role covering education, research and operations.

La Trobe has also made OpenAI’s agentic tools, meaning AI systems designed to act on tasks, Codex and ChatGPT Work available across the institution. Its handbook lists Vibe Coding for Startups and Agentic AI Software Engineering from 2027.

The university’s AI Business Studio aims to give more than 1,000 students practice as consultants and forward deployed engineers. They will use ChatGPT Edu and Codex to help small and medium enterprises adopt AI by 2028 and connect graduate skills with business needs.

La Trobe reports dozens of live use cases, training for hundreds of people and 10% month-on-month growth in active users. Its IT teams manage safe access and token economics, meaning the cost and usage limits of model access. “ChatGPT and Codex have helped shorten early systems development and innovation from months to weeks, and importantly, enabled embedded co-design by staff and students,” Laufenberg said.

Adelaide University

Adelaide University says its creation through a complex merger gives it a chance to build secure, governed and scalable AI use from the outset. The institution, which describes itself as Australia's first new major university in a generation, already uses the OpenAI API in research, teaching and staff work.

Adelaide University is among the first higher-education institutions to use OpenAI Daybreak Blue for authorised defensive security work. The tasks include vulnerability discovery, secure code review, malware analysis, incident response and patch validation.

How are AI tools changing teaching?

La Trobe's Paramedicine program turns ChatGPT into a simulation engine. Dr Cameron Anderson, the program's head, creates practice activities through the university's learning management system. Students interpret an electrocardiogram (ECG), assess a possible heart attack or triage patients after a mass-casualty incident. Anderson says the simulations reinforce and test classroom learning.

In the School of Education, Professor Therese Keane uses Fletch, a social robot, to let future teachers rehearse conversations with parents. OpenAI large language models (LLMs, statistical systems that generate language), hosted through Microsoft Azure, power Fletch's speech, facial expressions and head movements.

Keane's team built realistic scenarios from interviews with highly experienced educators. Fletch also lets trainee teachers practice conversations that become confrontational, according to La Trobe, targeting a difficult skill for many teachers.

Can students use AI in assessments?

UNSW's Can, Can’t, Must framework assigns AI use according to each learning goal. Educators can permit, prohibit or require AI, giving students room to practise appropriate use while demonstrating foundational knowledge.

The University of Sydney pairs its rollout with a responsible AI framework and an assessment approach. Students first demonstrate their own capabilities in supervised settings, then show how they can use AI effectively in open assessments.

La Trobe is adding guidance alongside access. Its library offers free Responsible and Safe AI learning modules for all students, while AI skills development is being integrated into 50 priority first-year subjects for Semester 1, 2027.

The university also provides tailored modules for Education, Law and Health, linking AI literacy to professional responsibilities. Workshops and teaching resources help educators design learning activities and assessments.

The combined strategy targets more than tool distribution. UNSW, Sydney and La Trobe say institutional access can give students equitable opportunities to develop AI skills, regardless of discipline or which tools they can afford.

What happens next?

The first large test arrives in 2027. UNSW will be scaling ChatGPT Edu beyond its initial access, Sydney plans all-student access for Semester 1, and La Trobe plans universal access in the first quarter.

La Trobe's 2028 target supplies the clearest outcome measure. Its AI Business Studio aims to test whether more than 1,000 students can help small and medium enterprises adopt AI while applying Codex and ChatGPT Edu to real projects. The institutions' shared test is whether broad access, explicit assessment rules and practical placements can convert widespread experimentation into repeatable graduate capability.