Open Access Research Article
DIGITAL COLONIALISM THROUGH AI IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A GLOBAL SOUTH PERSPECTIVE ON DATA SOVEREIGNTY AND ALGORITHMIC GOVERNANCE
Abstract
Abstract
The governance of artificial
intelligence (AI) in higher education presents one of the most significant
regulatory challenges of the digital age, particularly for institutions
situated within the Global South. Existing policy and legal debates have predominantly
framed AI governance through concerns of privacy, security, and ethical
compliance, often overlooking the structural power asymmetries embedded within
global digital ecosystems. This paper addresses that gap by examining the
deployment of AI in higher education through the lens of digital colonialism,
with particular attention to issues of data sovereignty, platform dependency,
and algorithmic governance.
Employing a doctrinal and comparative
legal methodology, the study analyses international AI governance instruments,
data protection frameworks, and emerging regulatory approaches, alongside
selected case studies concerning educational technology platforms, AI-enabled
surveillance, cloud infrastructure dependence, and cross-border data
governance. It argues that the growing reliance of universities on
foreign-owned digital infrastructures and AI systems creates new forms of
technological dependency that extend beyond conventional privacy concerns.
These dependencies facilitate the extraction and external control of
educational data, concentrate algorithmic authority within a limited number of
transnational technology corporations, and risk reinforcing epistemic
hierarchies that marginalize local, indigenous, and non-Western knowledge
systems.
The analysis demonstrates that
prevailing legal and policy frameworks, including data protection regimes and
AI ethics instruments, provide only partial responses to these challenges
because they primarily regulate the use of data rather than the underlying
structures of technological power. While examining India’s emerging regulatory
landscape—including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the
National Education Policy, 2020, and recent AI governance initiatives—the paper
identifies both the opportunities and limitations of existing approaches to
safeguarding educational autonomy in an increasingly platformized environment.
The paper contends that effective AI
governance in higher education must be reconceptualized as a question of data
sovereignty, platform sovereignty, and educational self-determination. It
proposes a decolonial governance framework centred on sovereign digital
infrastructure, algorithmic accountability, public-interest AI development,
localized data governance, and enhanced Global South participation in
international norm-making. By situating AI governance within broader debates on
postcolonial power, knowledge production, and technological dependence, this
study contributes to the emerging scholarship on digital colonialism and offers
a Global South-centred framework for regulating AI in higher education.
Published Paper
Author Details
Authors: TUSHAR SUBRAT
Registration ID: 1013101 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13101
Year: Sep-2026 | Volume: 3 | Issue: 6
Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Page No.: 68-104
Article Information
DIGITAL COLONIALISM THROUGH AI IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A GLOBAL SOUTH PERSPECTIVE ON DATA SOVEREIGNTY AND ALGORITHMIC GOVERNANCE
Authors: TUSHAR SUBRAT
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Volume 3
- Issue 6
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- AbbreviationIJLRA
- ISSN2582-6433
- AccessOpen Access
- LicenseCC 4.0
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