AI in Higher Education: When Do University Students Consider It Ethical or Unethical?

This chapter investigated the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) use in higher education through the perspective of university students. Using a qualitative research method, this study analyzed responses elicited from a group of English Language Teaching (ELT) students to explore how they conceptualized ethical boundaries when using AI in academic tasks. The findings revealed that students developed a foundational ethical framework distinguishing between assistive AI use (e.g., brainstorming and proofreading) and substitutive ones (e.g., completing assignments or homework). Most ELT students identified a threshold of 25–30% as an acceptable level of AI assistance in academic tasks. Their ethical judgments were affected by such factors as the amount of personal contribution, the nature of tasks, the intent of using AI, and transparency considerations. Students perceived ethical AI use as something that supported rather than replaced their intellectual engagement, while they defined unethical AI use as direct copying and complete reliance on AI tools. This chapter, therefore, contributes to our understanding of the recent ethical discussion of AI use in higher education and offers targeted recommendations for students, academics, and institutions. © 2026 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston, Genthiner Straße 13, 10785 Berlin