Human first – UCA's position on artificial intelligence (AI)

Students and staff at UCA hold a range of views about AI, and we take all of these perspectives seriously. We know some of you have concerns about generative AI being trained on creative work without its makers' consent, its impact on authorship and ownership, biased or unreliable outputs, and the energy and water these systems use. These concerns inform our decisions about how UCA uses AI and how we teach you about it. UCA's approach to AI has been developed by a working group bringing together academic staff, professional services staff and Students' Union representatives.

As a creative university, we value creative and personal freedom, including the freedom to question, challenge and hold different views. We recognise that AI can inspire strong feelings, from concern about its impact to enthusiasm about its possibilities. We want everyone to feel able to share their perspectives, and encourage conversations guided by curiosity, care and respect for one another's views and creative choices.

Assessment at UCA focuses on your own judgement, creative decisions and responsibility for your work, demonstrated through both what you produce and the process you follow. In terms of AI use in assessed work, this means:

• Your course team will explain in advance what AI use is permitted in each assessment.
• In project work, whether to use AI is your creative choice, within the requirements set out for that assessment.
• Students who choose to use AI and those who choose not to are assessed against the same learning outcomes. Your decisions about using or not using AI form part of the creative judgement you demonstrate.
• Some set tasks may ask you to use AI so that you can learn about it and think critically about it. Your course team will tell you when this applies.
• If you use AI, you must declare how you have used it and show which decisions were your own. Your course team will explain how to do this.
• Your work is assessed, marked and given feedback by academic staff. AI and automated systems do not decide your marks or assessment outcomes.

UCA will only introduce AI into its systems and services after considering its benefits and its impact on our community and the University's purpose.

Our responsibility is to help you understand and critically engage with a technology you are likely to encounter in your future working life, while respecting your concerns and your creative choices.

The work made at UCA belongs to the people who made it.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please speak to your Programme Director.