Designing AI Literacy Curricula for Higher Education: A Comparative Framework

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a defining force in education, transforming how knowledge is created, evaluated, and shared. However, universities still face challenges in integrating AI literacy effectively into their curricula. Current efforts, opinions, and ideas vary widely. Some concentrate on technical skills, while others emphasise ethics or social impacts, often without pedagogical alignment or supporting research. This study offers a Structured Literature Review (SLR) of 87 peer-reviewed sources (2018–2025) from Scopus-indexed journals, including Computers & Education, AI & Society, British Journal of Educational Technology, Nature Machine Intelligence, and the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. The SLR synthesises conceptual, pedagogical, and governance perspectives to create the AI Literacy Design Matrix (AILDM). This matrix serves as a comparative framework identifying four interconnected curriculum design dimensions: conceptual, ethical, productive, and participatory. The review reveals that, although higher education worldwide acknowledges the importance of AI literacy, most programmes remain fragmented, with limited integration of ethics or civic aspects. The AILDM proposes a framework for designing balanced curricula that foster understanding, creativity, and responsibility. The paper concludes that AI literacy should be regarded as a civic and epistemic infrastructure, and therefore integrated across disciplines rather than confined to computer science.