"It is a temptation to get it to do the work…" Student Experiences of Navigating the Generative AI Landscape in UK Higher Education: A Cross-Institutional Survey with International Comparison

Synthesis: The StudentXGenAI Project surveyed more than 7,000 students across 7 UK institutions (September–December 2025) on GenAI use in their studies, comparing findings with a companion Australian survey. A significant minority of students conscientiously object to GenAI use, while most users are honest most of the time and try to avoid submitting direct GenAI outputs — yet students still use GenAI throughout the entire learning and assessment process, creating a persistent tension between use and integrity.

Key Findings

1. Conscientious objectors. Despite discourse that "everyone is using it," a significant minority of students deliberately refuse to use GenAI.

2. Mostly honest but pervasive use. For students who do use GenAI, the majority are honest most of the time and try to avoid submitting direct GenAI outputs, yet they use it for a range of tasks throughout the entire learning and assessment process.

3. International convergence. The UK and Australian findings are strikingly similar yet nuanced, suggesting shared student norms and tensions across institutions and countries.

Implications

For Student Experience and Higher Ed practice, the survey provides large-scale evidence that students are not uniformly outsourcing work — many regulate their own use, and a notable minority object outright. This complicates simple Academic Integrity narratives and supports evidence-based, student-voice-driven Educational Policy AI rather than blanket prohibition.

The tension between honest self-regulation and pervasive use across the assessment lifecycle bears on Assessment design and on Ethics education: institutions need policies that acknowledge legitimate Generative AI use while protecting learning. The multi-institution, internationally compared design makes this a strong empirical anchor for AI Governance Education and institutional practice.

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Citation

Gow, S., Illingworth, S., Fabian, K., & Goddard, C. (2026). "It is a temptation to get it to do the work…" Student experiences of navigating the generative AI landscape in UK higher education: A cross-institutional survey with international comparison. EdArXiv preprint.