Presentation Schedule
How PUMPed Are Students About Generative AI? (101973)
Session Chair: Sabina Lissitsa
Sunday, 8 February 2026 15:55
Session: Session 3
Room: Opal 103 (Level 1)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
University students’ increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools has raised concerns among educators and policymakers about academic integrity, authorship, and critical thinking. Much of the current discourse assumes students misuse these technologies as academic shortcuts, but little empirical research has examined how students themselves perceive and engage with GenAI. This study investigates the perceptions, utilizations, motivations, and preferences (PUMP) of first-year graduate students at at Duke Kunshan University, a Sino-American, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) institution. Using a mixed-method design, data was collected from 49 anonymous survey responses and 12 student-moderated focus groups (n = 88) across four postgraduate degree programmes. Findings suggest that students primarily use GenAI for ‘low-stakes’ tasks such as grammar correction, translation, and paraphrasing, while avoiding full-text generation. They saw GenAI as a supportive tool for managing their work load and writing development, but expressed concerns about accuracy, dependency, and a decrease in critical thinking. Many students emphasized the importance of clear institutional policies and expressed a preference for alternative assessments, such as oral presentations, in-class writing, and reflections, that reduce the likelihood of inappropriate GenAI use. These results highlight the need for context-specific guidelines and AI literacy instruction that move beyond functional use and towards critical evaluation and responsible integration. By centering multilingual postgraduate voices, this study contributes to ongoing conversations about the ethical and pedagogical implications of GenAI in higher education and underscores the importance of policy and curriculum design that safeguard both integrity and student development.
Authors:
Layla Shelmerdine, Duke Kunshan University, China
Joseph Davies, Duke Kunshan University, China
Ben Gutscher, Duke Kunshan University, China
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Layla Shelmerdine is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Duke Kunshan University in China
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