To Be or Not to Be: AI-Assisted Writing, Plagiarism and Academic Integrity in Higher Education

Abstract

AI has already changed higher education in very concrete ways – both in how teachers design and deliver their courses and in how students learn, write, and prepare assignments. Along with these changes, questions about academic integrity have become much harder to ignore. Many students are still unsure what counts as misconduct in an AI-assisted context, and where the line is between legitimate support and plagiarism. With that in mind, we conducted a pilot study to explore how often students use ChatGPT, what they mainly use it for, how they understand plagiarism, and whether their AI use is linked to academically dishonest behaviour. We also paid particular attention to environmental courses, where AI tools are increasingly used to explain concepts, summarize materials, and support project work. The study involved undergraduate and master’s students from the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Serbia, using an online questionnaire distributed via the 1KA platform during the 2025/2026 winter semester. Findings highlight the need for further research on the role of educators in guiding AI use, addressing digital inequality, ensuring data privacy, and developing instructional frameworks that integrate AI while promoting academic integrity.

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