In short
- Find your own rules: the course handbook, the assignment brief, or your institution’s AI policy.
- Rules can differ for each module and each assignment. Check every time.
- Keep a note of any AI help you use, as you use it.
- If you’re not sure, ask before you use it, not after.
AI tools have changed fast, and so have the rules about them. What one teacher allows, another doesn’t. Nobody expects you to guess; they do expect you to check. This guide shows where to look and what to ask. It can’t tell you your own rules, because only your school or university can.
Find your rules
Read the brief
Some assignments say what’s allowed in the brief itself. If it does, that rule is the one that counts for this piece.
Read the course or module handbook
Look for a section on AI, generative AI, academic integrity or academic misconduct.
Find your institution’s policy
Most schools, colleges and universities now publish one. Search your institution’s website or intranet for “AI policy” or “generative AI”.
Ask when it isn’t clear
Policies can be vague about the line between help and doing the work. Ask your teacher or tutor about the specific thing you want to do. See questions to ask your tutor.
What policies often treat differently
Every policy is different, but many separate uses like these. Find where your own policy draws its lines:
| Use | What to check |
|---|---|
| Planning: dates, steps, a timetable | Often treated as study skills help, but check. |
| Explaining a hard idea or a word in the brief | Whether it counts as using AI, and whether to declare it. |
| Spelling and grammar checking | Whether tools that rewrite sentences are treated differently from ones that only flag errors. |
| Finding or summarising sources | Whether it’s allowed, and remember that AI tools can invent sources that don’t exist. |
| Writing or rewriting your text | Often not allowed, or allowed only with a declaration. Check carefully. |
Keep a note as you go
If your work needs a declaration, it’s much easier to write one from notes than from memory. Each time you use an AI tool, write down:
- The date and the tool.
- What you asked it to do, in a sentence.
- What you did with the result: used it, changed it, or ignored it.
Keep the note with the assignment, so it’s there when you hand in.
Check what it gives you
Even where AI help is allowed, you are responsible for what you hand in. AI tools can be confidently wrong: they can misread a brief, give a date or a figure that isn’t true, or name a source that doesn’t exist. Treat anything they produce as a suggestion to check, not a fact. Look up every source yourself, in your library or the original, before you cite it.
Pip, and your rules
- You need planning help, not writing. Pip plans: it turns a brief into dated steps, breaks big tasks down and explains a command word for your subject. It never writes or rewrites your work, never makes up sources, and shows every change before it’s made. See Meet Pip. Pip
- You need to remember what help you used. Keep your notes in the assignment card’s notes, so they’re with the work when you write the declaration. Free
- You’re not sure what leaves your device. Nothing is sent unless you press one of Pip’s buttons, and then only what that job needs. See privacy. Free
For your level
School and college
For coursework and NEA, your exam board and your school both have rules, and your teacher has to confirm the work is yours. Ask your teacher before using any AI tool.
University
Rules can change between modules in the same course. Check each module’s handbook, and look for a declaration form on the submission page.
Dissertations and research
Your supervisor and any ethics approval may set extra rules, especially for analysing data. Agree what’s allowed at the start.
Questions
Am I allowed to use AI for my assignment?
It depends on where you study and sometimes on the assignment. Some allow AI for planning or checking spelling, some allow more with a declaration, and some don’t allow it at all. Check your course handbook, the assignment brief, or ask your teacher or tutor.
What is an AI declaration?
A short statement, sometimes a form, where you say whether and how you used AI tools. Some universities ask for one with every assignment. Your institution’s policy says if you need one and what it should include.
Is using AI to plan an essay allowed?
Often, but not everywhere. Many policies treat planning help differently from writing help, but you need to check yours. If in doubt, ask before you use it, and declare it if your policy asks you to.
What happens if I break the AI rules?
Most schools and universities treat it as academic misconduct, like plagiarism, and the consequences can be serious. That’s why it’s worth checking the rules first and asking when you’re not sure.
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