AI, Governance, and Academic Trust: Rethinking Cybersecurity Transformation in Digital Universities

Authors

1 School of Artificial Intelligence and Low-Altitude Technology, Hefei College of Finance & Economics, Hefei, China 230601
2 School of Smart Finance and Business, Hefei College of Finance & Economics, Hefei, China 230601
Corresponding author: 825877862@qq.com

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63646/ZDUL4522

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence; academic trust; higher education; cybersecurity governance; digital universities; explainable AI; hybrid architectures; federated learning; human-centric security

Abstract

The digital transformation of universities has intensified cybersecurity dependence while exposing higher education institutions to new forms of operational, ethical, and governance risk. Although artificial intelligence offers increasingly capable mechanisms for anomaly detection, phishing defense, behavioral authentication, and automated response, adoption outcomes remain uneven across academic environments. This article rethinks cybersecurity transformation in digital universities through the combined lenses of AI capability, governance maturity, and academic trust. Rather than treating security modernization as a purely technical problem, the study develops an integrative review and scenario-based benchmarking framework to evaluate how institutional design conditions reshape the practical value of AI-supported security. A curated corpus of 50 DOI-indexed studies was coded across AI method, security domain, deployment architecture, and governance relevance. In parallel, 36 institutional scenarios were benchmarked across governance maturity, academic trust, and architectural choice using a weighted transformation effectiveness index spanning detection quality, privacy protection, explain ability, trust acceptance, and deployment feasibility. The analysis shows that centralized architectures usually score highest on raw detection, but hybrid architectures outperform on overall institutional value. Governance maturity raises transformation effectiveness across all configurations, while academic trust acts as a powerful amplifier of governance value. Human-centric controls, explain ability, and privacy-preserving design emerge as decisive conditions for credible adoption. The article contributes a governance-mediated cyber transformation framework, a scenario logic for evaluating digital university security strategies, and a policy-oriented research agenda for building resilient, legitimate, and trusted AI security systems in higher education.

How to Cite

Zhou, Y., Xu, Y., & Xiao, X. (2025). AI, Governance, and Academic Trust: Rethinking Cybersecurity Transformation in Digital Universities. Journal of Technology Innovation and Society, 1(2), 168-184. https://doi.org/10.63646/ZDUL4522

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