Understanding Artificial Intelligence Literacy in Higher Education: Patterns, Variation, and Implications

This study aims to determine university students’ levels of artificial intelligence (AI) literacy and to examine the patterns of variation of this competence across individual and educational variables. Conducted within the Turkish higher education context, where empirical evidence on AI literacy remains limited, this study addresses a gap in the regional literature by providing large-scale, multidimensional evidence on how AI literacy competencies are distributed among undergraduate students. The research was designed within the framework of a cross-sectional survey model. The study group consisted of 870 undergraduate students enrolled at a public university in the Black Sea region of Turkey. Data were obtained through the Artificial Intelligence Literacy Scale, which encompasses the dimensions of awareness, usage, evaluation, and ethics. Independent samples t-tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed for statistical analyses. Critically, the findings revealed that participants’ overall AI literacy levels were positioned above the moderate level, although the distribution exhibited notable heterogeneity. No statistically significant differences were identified with respect to gender or faculty variables, suggesting the cross-disciplinary nature of AI literacy. In contrast, significant differences were observed in relation to academic level and daily internet usage. Senior students demonstrated notably higher AI literacy levels than their peers in earlier years, and intensive digital engagement was found to be positively associated with literacy scores. These findings carry direct implications for curriculum design in Turkish universities, where systematic AI literacy education has yet to be institutionally embedded. The results indicate that AI literacy is more closely related to experiential and interactional factors rather than relatively stable demographic variables, pointing to the critical role of sustained and systematically planned educational strategies in developing this competence.