Balancing Ethics and Innovation:
How AI Is Reshaping Higher Ed in Southeastern Europe

Southeastern European Widening Countries face the dual challenge of advancing digital transformation while aligning their higher education systems with European policies and standards. The DEEPEN project provides an in-depth analysis of how Widening Countries address these challenges.

As part of the DEEPEN project, leading higher education experts from the Western Balkans - Prof. Marjan Milošević (University of Kragujevac, Serbia), Prof. Dr. Festim Halili (University of Tetova, North Macedonia), Dr. Edita Bucinca (Kosovo Education Center, Kosovo), Irina Geanta (Executive Agency for Higher Education, Romania), and Prof. Vlad Vuković (Metropolitan University, Serbia) shared their views on challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in their institutions and national research sectors. 
The experts highlighted that, while universities in the region are becoming central actors for digital skills, innovation, and capacity building (e.g., Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo), many institutions still lack structured university wide digitalization frameworks. As a result, digitalization progress often remains project-based and is dependent on external funding. 
 

Risks of AI Adoption

Digital transformation and AI offer major opportunities, but they can reinforce existing challenges when structural conditions are missing. The DEEPEN experts identified several risk areas:

• Digital inequalities:
  Kosovo, Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina show disparities in digital infrastructure between urban and rural regions. Experts stressed that AI technologies may widen this gap when access and skills remain unevenly distributed.

• Inequality between higher education institutions:
  In countries such as Albania, North Macedonia, or Serbia, clear differences exist between digital frontrunners and lagging institutions. The absence of overarching institutional strategies can lead to fragmented development paths.

• Lack of digital competence and organizational learning:
  Many universities do not adequately prepare faculty and staff for AI-related change. Without systematic organizational learning, risks arise from skill mismatch, lack of acceptance, skills loss, and job insecurity. 

• Regulatory and governance gaps:
  Almost all studied countries point to missing ethics standards, data protection rules, or systematic governance structures for AI in higher education. 

• Declining trust and lack of transparency:
  DEEPEN shows that Serbia, Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina suffer from institutional trust deficits that may deepen through the deployment of opaque AI systems. 

• Risks of political or economic manipulation:
  DEEPEN sees that AI-generated content may be used for political or economic influence weakening the political systems of the countries considered. 

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Progress and Remaining Gaps
 

The DEEPEN analysis shows that universities are making progress in deploying AI-supported educational technologies and digital administration tools:

• Individualized learning platforms have been developed especially in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, where new digital systems (e.g., Shkollat.org, university-level e-learning tools) support personalized learning pathways.

• Digital skills development and lifelong learning are key priorities in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where national strategies, digital-skills programs, and EU-funded reforms aim to prepare educators and students for AI. 
   

Despite these advances persistent systemic gaps remain:

• missing system-wide digitalization strategies that connect teaching, research, governance, and ethics;

• insufficient research capacities in AI and data-driven governance;

• lack of institutional learning mechanisms and sustainable forms of regional cooperation

The Way Forward
 

Given the diverse digital trajectories across countries, the region must rely on cooperation, strategic coordination, and learning institutions. DEEPEN identifies the following priorities:

• developing institutional digitalization strategies tailored to each institution’s capacities;

• fostering organizational learning and adaptive governance;

• aligning national digitalization and higher education policies with EU standards;

• building collaborative networks for knowledge co-creation and innovation on equal terms.

Ultimately, Southeastern Europe’s higher education systems have made important strides in regard to digitalization, but continued progress depends on strategic coordination, robust governance, and a shared commitment to digital inclusion.