Australian University Replaces In-Person Psychology Classes with AI Chatbot

One student, who asked to remain anonymous, said they felt “short-changed” after issues with their degree structure forced them to enrol in the online option. Each psychology subject costs $2,174 for Australian students with commonwealth supported places in 2026, and a three-year undergraduate degree now costs over $50,000. The student said: “Instead of a group discussion or a tutor teaching you, it’s a class activity done with a robot. I feel like I’m teaching this robot how to take jobs away from my teachers.” Macquarie said the tool was designed in partnership with educators to support, not replace, them. Professors upload the information Virtual Peer uses and check it, making it more tailored than general-purpose AI tools, according to the university. Experts say that could make the tool potentially less prone to “hallucination,” or inventing content without evidence. Macquarie can also monitor student conversations on the service, the university said.

The subjects still have paid tutors who run optional Zoom sessions each week. One introductory-level subject has six sessions a week for its 400 students, while the other final-year subject has 10 sessions a week for its 700 students—roughly one class for every 70 students. Students who want to speak to a human for feedback are encouraged to attend, and Macquarie said attendance was variable and rose around assessment due dates. Virtual Peer has also been used in other subjects but not all classes. Its use has accelerated, answering close to 80,000 student questions in all of 2025 but nearly as many in just the first half of 2026, most of which were administrative. The university said staff and students overwhelmingly found the tool valuable or recommended its use when surveyed.

Macquarie is one of a handful of Australian universities to systematically incorporate AI into teaching, alongside the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney, as the technology attracts growing student use and backlash. Meena Jha, an associate professor at Central Queensland University, said she had not previously heard of any universities simultaneously cutting in-person teaching and introducing AI chatbots in her research into AI in higher education. “Students require that human touch … engagement will be a very big issue if we replace everything with virtual tutors,” said Jha, who is also head of CQU’s pedagogy and technology cluster. CQU is piloting its homegrown AI tool, named “Birdy,” as a service and support tool in 24 units. Jha has built an AI avatar in her likeness, named Neena Chatbot, to answer students’ questions about subject matter.

The University of Sydney has positioned itself as a leader in the field, with hundreds of academics using its education-focused generative AI platform, “Cogniti,” for chatbots and scenario exercises. It has shared Cogniti with other institutions in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. In late August, Sydney released a discussion paper that envisions futures where AI takes on even greater responsibilities, delivering personalised teaching for each student in each unit, while staff-student contact hours decline. A university spokesperson said Sydney was only supporting staff to use technology to improve student experience. “Human judgement, accountability and relationships are essential to everything we do, and can never be replaced by technology,” the spokesperson said. “This isn’t a cost-saving measure in any way.” Peter Chen, president of the university’s national tertiary education union (NTEU) branch, said the paper had added to growing staff concern about their future at the university as funding shortfalls left fewer academics to run bigger classes. “For some staff, they’re afraid they’re going to lose their jobs,” Chen said.