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Abstract

This article examines a critical and timely issue in higher education: university students’ attitudes toward the ethical use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in learning. Addressing a notable gap in quantitative research, the study investigates how students perceive the ethical dimensions of GenAI use through a survey of 760 students across three universities in two European countries. Analyses were conducted across national and institutional contexts, as well as by demographic and academic variables, including gender, age, mode of study, type of program, and field of study. The investigation aimed to assess how various student groups evaluate the ethical considerations of GenAI use in their academic work. To this end, it employed a combination of descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Findings were interpreted through the frameworks of virtue ethics and constructivist learning theory. Results indicate that students, on average, assign only moderate importance to the ethical aspects of GenAI use a concerning outcome given the increasing relevance of ethics in technology-enhanced learning. Furthermore, students’ ethical assessments were significantly lower than those of their instructors at the same institutions. The study concludes that students tend to undervalue ethical concerns related to GenAI, and that this tendency is shaped less by external or demographic factors than by internal institutional factors, including university culture and norms.