Prime Highlights
- Tsinghua launched a university-wide AI framework to ensure responsible, transparent, and ethical use in education and research.
- The guidelines aim to balance innovation with academic integrity, encouraging critical thinking and careful evaluation of AI outputs.
Key Facts
- The framework is built on five core principles, including responsibility, data security, and fairness with inclusiveness.
- Students and staff must disclose AI use, avoid misconduct, and follow scenario-based rules across teaching, learning, and academic outputs.
Background
Tsinghua University has introduced a university-wide framework outlining the use of artificial intelligence in teaching, learning, and research. The document, called Tsinghua University Guiding Principles for the Application of AI in Education, explains clear expectations for using AI responsibly and transparently across the university.
The guidance is built around five core principles: responsibility, compliance and integrity, data security, prudence combined with critical thinking, and fairness with inclusiveness. These principles aim to help students and staff use AI tools while protecting academic standards and personal data.
Under the framework, users must clearly disclose any use of AI in their academic work. The university bans AI-related academic misconduct and forbids using sensitive or unauthorized data to train AI models. The guidance also urges students and researchers to watch for possible AI mistakes and to check information through multiple sources so they do not rely too much on the technology.
The document is organized into three main sections: General Provisions, Teaching and Learning, and Theses, Dissertations, and Practical Outputs. Each section includes practical, scenario-based guidelines that address common academic tasks and challenges.
Wang Shuaiguo, Director of the Online Education Center and the primary drafter, said the framework is meant to evolve. He emphasized that their hope is for the document to avoid limiting innovation, adding that it should function as a dynamic framework that evolves alongside the technology.
Instructors are encouraged to tailor AI usage rules to their course goals and to explain these guidelines at the beginning of every term. Tsinghua plans to strengthen awareness of the new principles through an AI literacy platform, faculty training workshops, and cross-disciplinary dialogue, signalling a balanced approach that promotes both innovation and academic integrity.
