[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315011.].

Abstract This study examines the incorporation of soft skills, digital competencies, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools in higher education to improve student employability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with broader relevance for the South East Europe region, where similar transition economies face parallel challenges in aligning education with the demands of digitally transformed labor markets. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative survey data from University of Sarajevo students with qualitative insights from industry professionals. Research indicates that the concurrent enhancement of soft skills (such as communication and critical thinking) and digital competencies, in conjunction with the utilization of AI tools, markedly enhances students’ preparedness for the contemporary labor market. The study emphasizes the essential role of autonomy in converting AI tool utilization into academic achievement and provides practical recommendations for educators, policymakers, and employers to address the skills gap in the digital economy.

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale global study to date on how higher education students perceived the use of ChatGPT in early 2024. With a sample of 23,218 students from 109 countries and territories, the study reveals that students primarily used ChatGPT for brainstorming, summarizing texts, and finding research articles, with a few using it for professional and creative writing. They found it useful for simplifying complex information and summarizing content, but less reliable for providing information and supporting classroom learning, though some considered its information clearer than that from peers and teachers. Moreover, students agreed on the need for AI regulations at all levels due to concerns about ChatGPT promoting cheating, plagiarism, and social isolation. However, they believed ChatGPT could potentially enhance their access to knowledge and improve their learning experience, study efficiency, and chances of achieving good grades. While ChatGPT was perceived as effective in potentially improving AI literacy, digital communication, and content creation skills, it was less useful for interpersonal communication, decision-making, numeracy, native language proficiency, and the development of critical thinking skills. Students also felt that ChatGPT would boost demand for AI-related skills and facilitate remote work without significantly impacting unemployment. Emotionally, students mostly felt positive using ChatGPT, with curiosity and calmness being the most common emotions. Further examinations reveal variations in students’ perceptions across different socio-demographic and geographic factors, with key factors influencing students’ use of ChatGPT also being identified. Higher education institutions’ managers and teachers may benefit from these findings while formulating the curricula and instructions/regulations for ChatGPT use, as well as when designing the teaching methods and assessment tools. Moreover, policymakers may also consider the findings when formulating strategies for secondary and higher education system development, especially in light of changing labor market needs and related digital skills development.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming higher education, continually oscillating between its innovative potential and concerns over academic integrity. While universities are expected to develop policies addressing ethical and pedagogical challenges, many institutions have yet to implement clear guidelines. To extract the dimensions of students’ perceptions of generative AI, the authors primarily used exploratory factor analysis. By using the exploratory factor analysis three key dimensions were revealed, i.e. 1) awareness and familiarity with AI tools, shaped both by personal exposure and institutional practices 2) institutional engagement and guidance, emphasizing the degree to which professors integrate AI in teaching and the demand for clearer instructions on its use and 3) concerns ranging from perceived risks of misuse and violations of academic integrity to recognition of AI’s educational value. These findings imply the urgent need for universities to establish transparent AI policies and provide guidance, ensuring that students can engage with AI tools ethically and effectively.

For any society that strives for growth and development, focus on quality education is of particular importance. With the adoption of the Lisbon strategy in 2000, the European Union (EU) started an upward trajectory towards the most competitive economy in the world. Cooperation in education has become an important instrument for mutual understanding and sharing of European values. This cooperation is supported with numerous relevant policy strategies, action plans, available statistical data, evaluation reports, road maps, thematic working groups and programmes, special network structures and idea exchange platforms within the EU. Key relevant strategies, plans and respective indicators are analyzed in this paper. Special attention is given to progress in candidate and potential candidate countries with regards to recommendations and goals of EU. It is concluded that more effort of the educational authorities is needed in all countries and one of the areas that needs to be further developed is evidence based policy making in education.

The current study investigates how attitudes towards digital transformation and personal innovativeness affect the acceptance of emergency remote learning in the COVID-19 pandemic environment. The pandemic has affected all aspects of societies across the globe, including higher education that was also a significant push-up factor for the digital transformation of higher education. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting emergency remote learning acceptance among the higher education students in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The results presented in this paper gained from a study carried out among higher education students in BiH cover the period of April – July 2020 via the open-source platform. The study focused on the students’ attitude towards a digital transformation is a significant factor in accepting emergency remote learning. Also, the personal innovativeness score has proven to be a crucial factor for adopting this new learning setting, i.e., more innovative students have a greater emergency remote learning acceptance than students with a lower personal innovativeness score. Hence, this study pinpoints the necessity of changing the attitudes towards technology applications in education. It would increase the usage of remote learning services and provide students with knowledge and skills for the new labour market