Using generative AI in your studies: guidelines for students

General guidance for all students on using generative AI tools in your studies.
Revision, 26 October 2026

This short animation provides an overview of the key points in this guidance.

AI at the University of Edinburgh, are we allowed to use it?

– Transcript

Title

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AI at the University of Edinburgh. Are we allowed to use it?

Introduction

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Yes. However, there is a difference between using AI to support your learning and using AI to do the learning for you. If you rely on AI to break down every difficult text, write every first draft, or generally do most of your thinking for you, there is no opportunity to develop those skills yourself, which is ultimately why we study here. Doing the tricky stuff is a part of why you're at university, not something to skip past, and even though AI often looks shiny and convincing. It can make mistakes. If you use its outputs without checking them AI’s errors become your responsibility.

The following are general university guidelines. In other words, the uses of AI that are not allowed anywhere in the university. Your courses will have their own specific rules about how you can use AI. So always check your individual course guidance and if you're unsure, ask your course organiser.

What do we mean by AI?

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What do we actually mean by AI? Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that creates content in response to a prompt like text, images, audio, video, or code. Then there is Agentic AI which operates more independently, working in the background without you having to continuously prompt or oversee it using an AI agent or browser to complete any type of work within any university platform that requires you to log in is strictly not permitted.

Uses of Misconduct

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So when else is AI strictly not permitted? the following uses count as misconduct. If you use them, you risk investigation and penalties.

One: Presenting AI outputs as your own original work.

Two: Using an AI translator to convert assessed work to English before submission You must also not use third party AI based translation apps in class. These can spoil the group dynamic in your labs, tutorials and seminars, and they go against the privacy of other students.

Three: Submitting an assessment which includes pieces of AI generated text, images, audio, video, computer code, mathematical formulae or reasoning without acknowledgment

Four: Citing and referencing AI found sources without reading and verifying them.

Environmental Concerns & Edinburgh ELM

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And be cautious. Remember that AI has an environmental cost. AI models run in data centres that use huge amounts of electricity and often vast amounts of water. The impact can change depending on the AI model, and more complex tasks generally require more resources. So before generating that AI video for a laugh, ask yourself if you really need to.

Edinburgh you can choose more environmentally responsible models by using the university's free, secure AI portal, ELM. It includes energy efficient AI models great for everyday use. Just search for Edinburgh ELM.

Summary

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So to summarise, the University of Edinburgh trusts you to use AI with integrity. When used purposefully and honestly, it can be a useful tool for your studies. Most importantly, if you're not clear about what you're allowed to do with AI on your course. Speak to your lecturer, tutor, or course organizer. They are there to help you.

And now, take the new AI online course for all students. You can find it in your Learn home page under essentials.

This guidance is for all students enrolled at the University of Edinburgh. It is University-level guidance, which means that it explains what uses of generative AI are not allowed anywhere in the University.

You will also have access to guidance from your programme and from your courses, which will have more specific information relevant to each assignment that you complete. This guidance may allow you to use AI in certain ways, or it may restrict it further.

The reason we have different levels of guidance is that Edinburgh is a very large and diverse university, and perspectives on acceptable use of AI vary across disciplines and subject areas.

If there is only one thing you take from these guidelines, it should be that if you are not clear about what you are allowed to do with AI on your course, speak to your lecturer, tutor or course organiser – they are here to help you.

AI Essentials short course for Edinburgh students

All students have access to a free, online course we have developed for students at Edinburgh. This will help you understand the issues around use of generative AI in more depth, and is designed to sit alongside these guidelines. You can access the course via Learn (look for the Essentials link in the left hand menu).

Overview

The University recognises that developing skills in the responsible use of generative AI is important and will likely be significant for your future life and work. We want to ensure that you have the knowledge and skills to thrive in a changing world, and we recognise that generative AI can be used creatively, critically and with integrity.

The University trusts you as students to act responsibly in relation to the use of generative AI. It also recognises that you need clarity on when its use breaches the University’s rules on academic misconduct. These guidelines aim to provide you with this clarity.

Unacceptable uses of generative AI for assessment

Passing off someone – or something’s – work as your own for an assessment is academic misconduct. This could include failing to cite a source you have used in a piece of assessed work, getting someone or something else (such as an AI agent) to complete your work for you, claiming authorship of machine-generated content or presenting machine-translated work as your own.

If you submit a piece of work for assessment that is not your own original work you risk being investigated according to the university’s academic misconduct investigation procedures. This could have serious implications for you and your studies.

The following uses of generative AI are not acceptable and constitute misconduct: if you use them you risk investigation and penalties.

Presenting AI outputs as your own, original work.
Using an AI translator to convert assessed work to English before submission: English is the language of teaching and assessment at Edinburgh – machine translation is treated as false authorship and is not acceptable.
Submitting an assessment which includes elements of AI-generated text without acknowledgment.
Submitting an assessment which includes AI-generated images, audio or video without acknowledgment.
Submitting an assessment which includes AI-generated mathematical formulae or reasoning, or computer code, without acknowledgment.
Citing and referencing AI-found sources without reading and verifying them.
Using an AI agent or AI browser to complete any type of work – assessed or not – within your virtual learning environment.

Use of live translation apps in your studies

The University’s Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy allows you to make audio recordings of classes but does not allow you to share and distribute these recordings with a third party. AI-based translation apps retain and process recordings in a way that is not allowed in this policy. They can also negatively affect the group dynamic in your labs, tutorials, supervisions and seminars. As a result, you must not use third-party AI-based translation apps in class unless you have a schedule of adjustments due to a disability which specifies this use.

You may however use translation services outside the classroom to help clarify and enhance your understanding of lecture, lab, supervision or seminar notes where necessary. You should only use the University’s generative AI service – ELM – to do this as it has in-built privacy protections. You can access ELM and find out about training opportunities here.

AI Agents

Using an AI agent within Learn or any other University learning or assessment platform which requires you to log in is not permitted. Sharing your login details with an agent or agentic browser is a breach of the University Computing Acceptable Use Policy. This will result in your access to University digital services being removed and disciplinary action being taken against you

Using the University’s own generative AI platform (ELM)

All University of Edinburgh students have free access to ELM, which offers you a secure gateway to a range of generative AI models, including locally-hosted and energy efficient models like Qwen, along with larger models like Claude and GPT. You should use ELM because:

It keeps your data secure – it will not be used by third party services to train their models or for any other purpose.
It is free to use for all staff and students, providing the same access for all and saving you money.
ELM allows you full freedom of choice about which models you select to use, including locally-hosted models which do not rely on external data centres, do not use water for cooling and are less straining on the natural environment.
Your ELM interactions cannot be monitored by your lecturers – like your email, they are private to you.
You can access ELM and find out about training opportunities here.

Reasons to be cautious about your use of generative AI

You should be aware that there are risks and disadvantages associated with over-use of generative AI to support learning.

Negative impact on learning
Over-dependence on AI can negatively affect your learning. You may want to look at research on how cognitive offloading and reduction in capacity for critical thinking may be associated with this. This report provides a useful overview:
Lodge J. M. and Loble L (2026). Artificial intelligence, cognitive offloading and implications for education, University of Technology Sydney

Environmental impact
Training, running and using AI carries a heavy cost for the environment, including water use, energy use and environmental degradation. You can read more in this useful report:
Aczel M., Chamanara S., Matin M., Farsi A., Marwala T., Madani K. (2026) Environmental Cost of AI's Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.

Bias and inaccuracy
Generative AI output often appears convincing and reliable, but the behaviour of AI models is strongly influenced by the data they are trained on, so they can perpetuate harmful biases, fabricate information and make errors. You will be held accountable for these errors and biases if you include them in assessed work. You can read more about AI bias and inaccuracy here.

Politics and ownership
There are deep concerns about the lack of democratic accountability of AI systems and companies, and the lack of global governance to ensure AI equity, safety and accountability. This brief article will help you if you want to know more about this issue:
Open Government Partnership (2026) Towards a Collective Ownership of AI

Acknowledging your use of AI

If you choose to use generative AI for permitted aspects of an assessment, it is important to be transparent about how you have done so. Look for guidance from your course about how you should acknowledge use of generative AI in each assignment you submit.

Citing your use of generative AI

If you use content generated by AI within your work, for example an AI-generated image or legitimate use of text from an AI chatbot, you will need to reference it. This means including an in-text citation or footnote in the body of your work, and a corresponding reference in your reference list.

The Library’s guide to using generative AI gives very useful guidance on this.