Sustaining human agency in AI-supported higher education: governance implications for sustainable cities

The rapid integration of generative and agentic artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education presents new opportunities for efficiency, accessibility, and personalised learning, particularly within resource-constrained contexts. However, this transformation also raises critical concerns regarding the erosion of human agency, including diminished critical thinking, weakened self-regulation, and growing dependence on automated systems. This study explores how AI-supported learning environments shape human agency in South African higher education and examines the implications for equitable human development and sustainable urban futures. Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with academic staff and postgraduate students who actively engage with AI in teaching, learning, and research. This study situates higher education within broader urban sustainability and innovation governance systems. The findings reveal a pattern of engagement: participants value AI’s cognitive and productivity benefits while actively resisting its substitution for human judgment, authorship, and accountability. Strong practices of verification, reflective use, and self-regulation demonstrate agentic resilience, yet these individual efforts are constrained by institutional gaps in AI governance, policy clarity, and capacity-building. Sustaining human agency in AI-supported higher education is essential not only for meaningful learning outcomes but also for cultivating the ethical competencies, governance norms, and innovation cultures required for sustainable cities. Participants adopted a cautious approach to AI in higher education due to uncertainty and its recent introduction into their work, highlighting that without adequate support, there is a significant risk of agency loss that could undermine intellectual capital essential for urban sustainability. The study contributes a context-sensitive framework for responsible AI integration that foregrounds human agency as a foundational condition for inclusive, ethical, and sustainable urban transformation.