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Learn how to use AI responsibly and effectively in your studies.

UQ rules for using AI in assessment

You can use Artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly to help you study in UQ courses, but there may be restrictions on the use of AI for in-person assessment.

Check your course profile for each assessment item to find out if AI use is allowed. AI use will be specified for each assessment task. Check with your course coordinator if you are unsure of any requirements.

Summary

If you are allowed to use AI in an assessment task:

  1. Plan how you can use AI effectively to help you while ensuring you still gain the knowledge and skills expected for your course. You may decide that it is not appropriate or smart to use AI depending on the assessment task.
  2. Keep a record and document every use of AI for the task.
  3. Always acknowledge and reference any use of AI.
  4. Remember that you will be required to demonstrate your learning for in-person assessment, independent of AI tools.

Sections on this page:

Checklist for planning AI use in your assessment

Question What to do
1. Do you know the guidelines on AI use for the assessment task?
  • Follow the rules on AI use outlined in your course profile.
  • Acknowledge and reference your use of AI based on your course coordinator’s instructions in your course profile.
  • Always ask your course coordinator if you are unsure.
2. Do you have a plan to keep track of your AI use?
  • Map out the ways using AI can help with your assessment. Get prompt ideas.
  • Document and record AI use every time you use it for the assessment.
  • Keep copies of all your AI conversations about the assessment.
3. Are you clear on your ethical standards in using AI?
  • Check the AI tools you use align with your ethical and moral principles.
  • Apply critical judgement to all outputs of AI.
  • Stay focused on bias inherent in AI.
4. Are you clear on discipline-specific approaches and critical thinking needed to use AI well?
  • Fact-check everything AI generates and cross reference with scholarly and trusted sources in your discipline.
  • Follow discipline-specific protocols for citing scholarly works.
5. Do you have a plan to ensure the final work submitted is your work?
  • Always read and review AI-generated outputs.
  • If you copy and paste AI-generated outputs into your assessment you must include quote marks and cite appropriately.
  • Rephrasing AI-generated output and adding it to your assessment is not enough for it to be considered your work.
  • Ensure you have learned the knowledge, skills, and capabilities expected in your assessment submission. Keep careful records of the work you did to complete the assessment, including notes, drafts and reference sources.

This checklist is adapted from General principles for use of generative AI by University of Sydney, shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.

What are the rules at UQ?

In your course profiles, for each assessment, you will see 1 of these 2 options:

  1. Cannot use AI: AI is prohibited through in-person assessment (e.g. exams, oral presentation).
  2. Can use AI: AI use must be referenced.

It could be viewed as cheating in an assessment task if you:

  1. use AI when it is not allowed
  2. don't acknowledge or reference your use of AI when it is allowed.

The Student Code of Conduct outlines expectations for all UQ students, including academic integrity and misconduct rules.

Using AI for your assessment

Use the decision tree to decide if you can use AI for your course assessment task.

'Using Artificial intelligence (AI) decision tree for assessment tasks' by The University of Queensland, CC BY 4.0. Adapted from 'When is it safe to use ChatGPT? (PDF, 1.77 MB)' by Aleksandr Tiulkanov and UNESCO, shared under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

Check your understanding

Try the Using AI in your assessment activity:

Follow the rules to maintain academic integrity

All members of the UQ community have a responsibility to support and uphold the values of academic integrity. As a student you are a member of the UQ community.

To check if you are violating UQ’s AI rules, ask yourself these three questions for every individual assessment task:

If you answer no to any of these questions, then you could be breaking UQ’s AI rules. Why? Because:

  • inappropriate use of AI is academic misconduct
  • inappropriate acknowledgment of AI use is academic misconduct.

Academic misconduct is a disciplinary offence. It involves a range of unethical behaviours that give a student an unfair and unearned advantage over their peers.

When AI use is allowed in your assessments

  1. You must acknowledge or reference the use of AI as outlined by the course coordinator.
  2. You should know AI’s limitations and always check the accuracy of any facts, references, quotes or edits generated by AI.
  3. You should consider the potential for biases in the AI system and review any materials generated with scepticism.
  4. You should check the literature in the discipline to ensure scholarly work and other’s ideas are appropriately recognised.

When using AI in your assessments, you are responsible for your learning and the work submitted.

Why rules for the use of AI matter

Rules for the use of AI ensure that all students, regardless of their background or access to advanced tools, have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their true abilities.

By preventing unfair advantages and encouraging genuine effort, UQ’s AI rules help maintain equity and protect the value of your UQ education. A degree from UQ is valuable, to protect this value it is important we work to maintain academic standards.

These rules support the ongoing trust in our academic programs, ensuring that, as a UQ graduate, you are respected for the knowledge, skills and qualities you have genuinely developed.

Be smart about using AI in assessment

When completing your assessment, think about the purpose of the task. Then, if AI use is permitted, decide how you can use AI effectively and appropriately.

Understanding the aim of an assessment task can help you respond more effectively and engage with integrity, ensuring the work that matters is your own.

Thinking about ownership of your learning and assessments is important in the age of AI.

"I guess you need to have a little bit of ego in there. You have to be like - no, my thoughts are better and you know it comes from me. … it's my work. If it's not coming from me, if it's just somebody else or collecting information for me, then it's not really me."

Mam, UQ focus group 2024.

Using AI in some tasks may undermine your ability to do the work yourself. For example, some assessment tasks might be designed to test your ability to:

  • write in a particular style
  • code
  • solve an equation
  • read and summarise literature
  • critique a theory, artwork, or creative performance
  • recall and apply essential knowledge quickly.

While AI might be able to complete tasks for you, it is your responsibility to spend the time on learning and then completing the assessment for yourself.

Even if AI is permitted, you have to decide it is smarter to study first and then use AI to test your knowledge or check your work.

AI can support your study when used well. Remember that you will be required to demonstrate your learning for in-person assessment, independent of AI tools.

Appropriate and inappropriate use of AI for assessment

Type of assessment Examples of appropriate use of AI Examples of inappropriate use of AI
Essay or report
  • Feedback on your planned structure or content.
  • Find relevant articles, books and other resources.
  • Summarise literature on the topic.
  • Proofread your draft.
  • Improve your grammar and sentence structure.
  • Acknowledge and reference your use of AI in a coversheet or reference list.
  • Don't copy and paste AI-generated outputs directly into your essay without including quote marks and acknowledging appropriately.
  • Don't use AI-generated content if it will prevent you from meeting the learning outcomes for the task.
  • Don't use AI to translate your essay from another language into English and copy the text into your essay if it will prevent you from demonstrating your learning for in-person assessment.
  • Don't upload licensed or copyright protected materials into AI tools.
Type of assessment Examples of appropriate use of AI Examples of inappropriate use of AI
Presentation
  • Feedback on how to structure your presentation.
  • Organise information and data.
  • Brainstorm ideas for visual elements.
  • Generate images.
  • Acknowledge AI-generated content in the presentation.
  • Don't use AI tools if it prevents you from learning the content yourself as you may not be able to demonstrate your learning in the in-person part of the assessment.
Type of assessment Examples of appropriate use of AI Examples of inappropriate use of AI
Coding
  • Get feedback on your code structure or logic
  • Generate code snippets for specific functions or tasks (e.g. importing data, plotting).
  • Troubleshoot errors and debug code with AI assistance.
  • Convert code between programming languages (e.g. Matlab to Python).
  • Ask for explanations of coding concepts or syntax.
  • Use AI to improve code readability or efficiency.
  • Reference your use of AI in comments or in a coversheet.
  • Using AI to generate all or most of the code for your assessment.
  • Submitting AI-generated code without. understanding or modifying it yourself
  • Using AI to complete the entire assignment, bypassing your own learning process.
  • Not acknowledging AI assistance in your submission.
  • Uploading licensed, confidential, or assessment-protected code to AI tools.
Type of assessment Examples of appropriate use of AI Examples of inappropriate use of AI
Problem set
  • Using AI to clarify theoretical concepts (e.g. What is the difference between conduction and mixed convection?)
  • Asking AI to explain derivation steps for a formula or equation.
  • Requesting hints or guidance on how to approach a complex problem.
  • Using AI to check your units or logic in an engineering calculation.
  • Asking AI to generate diagrams or flowcharts to visualise a process (provided you understand and adapt them).
  • Using AI to review your reasoning and identify possible errors in your solution.
  • Citing any AI input in your submission where required by university policy.  
  • Entering entire questions and submitting the AI’s answers as your own without understanding the solution process.
  • Using AI to complete every step of the problem set without attempting it yourself first.
  • Copy-pasting AI-generated explanations or calculations without critical review or adaptation.
  • Relying on AI to perform all calculations or derive all equations, bypassing your own analytical practice.
  • Failing to acknowledge or reference AI assistance where required.
  • Submitting diagrams or flowcharts created by AI without modification or understanding their meaning.

AI detection at UQ

From semester 2, 2025 UQ is no longer using any AI detection tools. The Turnitin AI detection tool in Learn.UQ has been disabled.

UQ students shared confusion about the effectiveness of AI detection software and how such tools are used at UQ in the Student Perspectives on AI in Higher Education project.

Keep records of your work

It is good practice to always keep careful records of the work you did to complete an assessment task. For example, keep notes and early drafts, annotated reference sources, and use version control on drafts. This way, if you are suspected of any form of misconduct, you will have evidence to support that you did the required work.

In-person (secure or supervised) assessment

To reduce our need to detect misuse of AI, UQ is shifting to a more secure assessment approach where the assessment task is completed in-person and the use of generative artificial intelligence will not be permitted.

Students may appropriately use AI where UQ cannot secure assessment tasks.