December 2025

Avoiding innovation theatre: A framework for supporting institutional AI integration5 December 2025Higher education institutions face persistent pressure to demonstrate AI engagement, often resulting in 'innovation theatre' — the performance of transformation without corresponding structural change. This essay presents a diagnostic framework distinguishing between performative and structural AI integration across four domains: governance and accountability, resource architecture, learning systems, and boundary setting. Unlike linear maturity models, it reveals gaps between institutional rhetoric and operational reality. Three legitimate strategic positions — incremental, selective, and transformative — help institutions move from accidental drift toward conscious choice. Treating AI integration as ongoing strategic practice rather than fixed deployment ensures institutions preserve agency over technology decisions aligned with institutional values.

AI-forward26 December 2025AI-forward describes an institution that treats AI integration as an ongoing strategic practice, evaluating and adapting as the technology changes, rather than as the one-off deployment of a finished solution.