Empowering International PhD Students: Generative AI, Ubuntu, and the Decolonisation of Academic Communication

This study explores the role of generative AI in enhancing the academic experiences of international PhD students through the lens of Ubuntu, a Southern African philosophy that emphasises interconnectedness and community. By adopting a collaborative autoethnographic approach, five international PhD students and their PhD supervisor examine how generative AI tools support their personalised learning, academic socialisation, and professional development. Importantly, the study reconceptualises the use of generative AI as a democratising force in academia, particularly for scholars navigating academic and social barriers. Through the Ubuntu philosophy, the research highlights how generative AI fosters inclusivity, enabling students to contribute more meaningfully to their academic communities. The findings reveal that while generative AI significantly enhances productivity and communication, its true value lies in its ability to foster connections, build relationships, and support the holistic wellbeing of scholars. This paper argues that embracing generative AI can help decolonise academic practices, promote epistemic justice, and create a more equitable scholarly environment for all.

This record includes the full paper as well as two datasets which are all made available for use by other researchers under the CC-BY 4.0 licence. This paper and the associated data for the project have been made available via pre-print for two key reasons. Firstly, given the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI research, we aimed to share our findings promptly, allowing other scholars to build on our work without delay. Secondly, in alignment with our commitment to democratising knowledge creation and dissemination in academia, we sought to make our research as widely accessible as possible to foster inclusivity and collaboration across the scholarly community. This record also includes a podcast summarising the key ideas from the paper (created by NotebookLM) to make the research more broadly accessible.