Free guide · first year
Using AI honestly at university
Almost every first-year uses AI. Very few have been told where the line is. This is where it is, and the two mistakes that turn help into misconduct.
Where help ends
There is a line, and it is not where most students think it is. On the safe side: asking AI to explain a concept you did not follow, to check your grammar, to suggest what to read next, to explain an error message, to test you on what you have just learnt. On the other side: submitting text it wrote as your own, having it write your code and handing that in, asking it to summarise a paper you never opened and citing that paper, and inventing data. The test is simple. If the marker is giving you marks for thinking, the thinking has to be yours. If they are giving you marks for the writing being clean, help with the writing is usually fine — usually, because some modules assess writing itself, and there it is not.
The two that get people caught
Invented references. Ask an AI for sources and it will sometimes produce a title, an author and a DOI that look perfect and do not exist. A marker checks one, finds nothing, and now every other reference in your list is suspect. Open every source yourself before you cite it — if you cannot open it, do not cite it. Invented numbers. The same applies to statistics: a figure with no source you can point to is a figure you made up, whoever typed it.
If your handbook says no
Some modules ban AI entirely, and that ban is the rule for that module whatever this guide says. Read the handbook. Where it is silent, ask the lecturer in writing and keep the reply — a message in your inbox is worth more than a memory of what someone said in a corridor.
Common questions
Is using ChatGPT at university cheating?
Not by itself. Using it to explain a concept, check grammar or test yourself is usually fine. Submitting text or code it wrote as your own, or citing sources it produced without opening them, is misconduct. Your module handbook has the final word.
Do I have to declare that I used AI?
If your department asks for a declaration, yes — and more are asking every year. Declaring use within the rules costs you nothing. Not declaring, when asked later, is what causes trouble.
Can a lecturer tell if I used AI?
Not reliably from the writing alone, which is why the mistakes that actually get people caught are checkable ones: references that do not exist and numbers with no source.
Campus Survival Pack
The full guide includes a generator that writes your AI-use declaration and a Word template for departments that want a signed page. Plus referencing guides, an assignment template and more.
See what's insideMore for the move to university
- After A/L — what to do while you wait
- What is a Z-score? How it is calculated
- Z-score cut-offs for every course
- UGC application guide — dates and course order
- Free checker — last round's cut-offs in your district
- Campus Match — your chance at every course
- Free first-year guides — email, APA, AI rules
- Campus Ready for parents
- Campus Survival Pack — templates and guides