Q&A: Purdue provost on AI grad requirements, claims of bans on students from some countries and more
Takeaways from a conversation with Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe to start the semester.
With Purdue opening the spring semester this week, Provost Patrick Wolfe sat for an interview with Based in Lafayette, laying out where things are heading with the university’s new AI graduation requirements, preparation for a larger incoming class for next year and pushing back on allegations that Purdue has an unwritten ban on accepting applications from potential grad students from China and other countries.
Here’s part of what came from that conversation with Wolfe, who is Purdue’s top academic officer.
On Purdue’s push into an AI future
Purdue trustees signed off on a series of moves in December that the university was touting as leading edge in how higher ed deals with artificial intelligence.
The first was a go-ahead for a graduation requirement based on AI working competency, aimed at students who start at Purdue in the fall 2026 semester. Trustees followed that a couple of days before Christmas by finalizing a deal with Google, worth roughly $35 million, that will roll out a suite of artificial intelligence software for all students and faculty and offer storage and security tools for the university’s research.
From there, trustees left it to the provost and others to work out details. In December, Wolfe described a process in which deans of each college would be assigned to help develop ways to measure skills most relevant to their disciplines, working with industry groups on an annual basis to make updates. Wolfe said then that the graduation requirement would not include a test or similar requirements, though metrics to measure AI competency and how those would be baked into a Purdue undergraduate education were still being figured out.
The question: This early into that process, what’s clearly going to be included in a graduation requirement? And what’s clearly not going to be included?
