Terms of Reference

This UBC-wide advisory committee will serve as a subcommittee of the UBC Generative AI Steering Committee and be advisory to the Deans/Vice-Provost, Graduate Studies on both campuses for matters related to graduate academic policy and administrative practice. Members of this advisory committee will review and discuss implications and opportunities of GenAI for use across multiple dimensions of graduate education and scholarship at UBC. This will be a forum for sharing input and ideas and discussing evolving community needs for information and guidance for GenAI in graduate education. The committee will draw from and contribute to the wider body of work across the University regarding effective, responsible, ethical usage of Generative AI.

Considerations related to Indigenous intellectual sovereignty, equity, accessibility, privacy and personal information, and copyright and intellectual property will be a significant focus.

The committee will contribute to the development of guidelines and/or principles for responsible use of GenAI in graduate education, including leveraging opportunities as well as mitigating risks. This committee will also provide input on approaches for advice and communications for faculty, students, and staff about the use of GenAI when engaging in graduate education-specific activities. 

The scope of this committee covers activities that are specific to graduate student administration and scholarly work, including the use of GenAI in graduate admission and scholarship applications and their evaluation, outputs such as major projects and comprehensive exams, theses, dissertations, research publications authored by graduate students, and other related topics. . The guidelines created may also apply to other graduate education contexts, including public scholarship activities, professional development activities, practicums, co-op, or other work-integrated learning, though these will not be the focus of the committee’s discussions. The use of GenAI in research activities is in scope to the extent of their applicability to graduate student outputs.

This committee is expected to be in place from March 2024-November 2024. As capability and implications of GenAI continue to evolve, discussions of how to continue to adapt the advice, principles, and guidelines on an ongoing basis will form part of the committee’s work as well.

Through collaborative and transdisciplinary processes of ideation, discussion, drafting and review, this committee will generate guidelines and advice on the use of Generative AI tools and functions for all constituents of Graduate Education at UBC – applicants, students, faculty, staff, research partners, and others – related to activities within the committee’s scope noted above, including:  

• Opportunities and challenges related to applicant and referee use of GenAI in producing admission applications including in statements of intent, letters of recommendation, transcripts and other application materials.   Also, opportunities and challenges in how GenAI may be used by graduate programs and others to evaluate applicants.
• Opportunities and challenges related to applicant, referee, and institutional use of GenAI in producing, reviewing, and ranking scholarship applications including in statements of intent, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and other application materials
• Opportunities, challenges, and expectations related to use of GenAI to enhance graduate student learning and scholarship, including use by students in their courses, and scholarly outputs such as presentations, theses and dissertations, as permitted within the framework of their courses and programs
• Opportunities, challenges, and expectations related to the use of GenAI in research and data management processes for graduate students. 
• Implications for GenAI and teaching for grad students/TAs.
• Strategies to address the evolving impacts of GenAI tools on academic integrity and academic misconduct as they relate to graduate education, including strategies to address these impacts. 
• Indigenous considerations related to the use of GenAI and graduate education, including Indigenous intellectual sovereignty, following protocols for Indigenous knowledges, avoiding harms from sharing biased or otherwise false information about Indigenous communities, cultures, knowledges, and histories.  
• Ethical and legal considerations related to the use of GenAI tools in graduate education, including:
  • Equity, anti-racism, inclusion, and bias
  • Equitable access and use of GenAI as an assistive technology for students with disabilities
  • Privacy, personal information, the deidentification of previously identified data and similar research data manipulation
  • Copyright and attribution
    
    

The committee will also provide input on potential formal academic policies related to the above scope, and approaches for effective communications for faculty, students, and staff about the use of GenAI in graduate education.

The GenAI and Graduate Education Advisory Group will actively support the delivery, by Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies, of UBC guidance (in various formats) to the issues within its scope, to be made available to all constituents of graduate education at UBC – applicants, students, faculty, staff, research partners, and others.