A Student-Centered Framework for Responsible Use of Generative AI in Higher Education
Abstract
Institutional guidance on generative artificial intelligence has expanded rapidly, yet it addresses administrators, instructors, and assessment designers rather than the students who make most decisions about AI use. Students report that the boundary of acceptable use remains unclear at the moment they must act. This conceptual paper proposes ten student-facing guidelines organized around three pillars: Learning and Growth, Ethics and Integrity, and Awareness and Safety. Drawing on a structured interpretive synthesis of research published between 2023 and 2026 and major policy frameworks, the paper argues that the pillars are jointly necessary because each addresses a distinct, empirically documented failure mode, and that a portable set of guidelines may support responsible use by externalizing metacognitive prompts that unguided AI use can weaken. Compared with policy guidance, institutional frameworks, assessment scales, and AI literacy curricula, the framework is distinctive in being student-facing, course-agnostic, and actionable at the point of decision. Five empirically testable propositions are specified for their evaluation.
