GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ITS IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING, CRITICAL THINKING, AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Abstract

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is revolutionizing higher education by allowing students to benefit from personalized learning, academic support, and knowledge acquisition. Nonetheless, increased use of such applications as ChatGPT is causing issues related to cognitive offloading, dependency, diminished independent thinking, and academic integrity. This systematic review investigates the influence of GenAI on the process of students' learning and critical thinking by examining the shift from productive use of AI to cognitive dependency and its consequences for academic integrity. Based on the PRISMA methodology, empirical studies conducted between January 2022 and August 2026 and found in publicly available scholarly databases and sources were selected for further analysis. Only those empirical articles were considered relevant for the review in which the GenAI was used in the context of higher education and where the impact of GenAI on learning, critical thinking, cognitive offloading or dependency, and academic integrity was analyzed. There are also issues of academic integrity arising from aspects such as unauthorized help, plagiarism, authorship, and test validity. The overall impact of GenAI in education would depend on how it was applied, why it was applied, and under what circumstances it was applied. This review stresses the need for AI literacy, teacher supervision, policies on responsible use, and authentic assessments.