University policies on generative AI in Asia: promising practices, gaps, and future directions

Figures & data

Table 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Item	Inclusion	Exclusion
Date of issue	After November 30, 2022^a	Before November 30, 2022
Type of documents	Official documents, such as policies, guidelines, and announcements issued by QS top 60 Asian universities.	Non-policy-oriented documents, such as news reports of AI research work, commentary articles, and scholars’ opinions.

^aSince ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, the issued date of the documents was set as after that day.

Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram of the document selection process.

Figure 2. Distribution of narratives about GenAI in the reviewed documents.

Figure 3. Distribution of focal GenAI tools mentioned in the reviewed documents.

Figure 4. Distribution of content organization in the reviewed documents.

Figure 5. Distribution of assessment policies in the reviewed documents.

Figure 6. Distribution of internal stakeholders targeted in the reviewed documents.

Table

University	Abbr.	Location	Last Updated/Issued Date	Language	Audience(s)
National University of Singapore	NUS	Singapore	2023/08/21	English	students
Nanyang Technological University	NTU Singapore	Singapore	unspecified	English	students, instructors, and researchers
The University of Hong Kong	HKU	Hong Kong SAR	2023/08/03	English	students and instructors
The University of Tokyo	UTokyo	Japan	2023/05/26	English	instructors
Seoul National University	SNU	South Korea	2023/09/03	Korean	students, instructors, and researchers
Kyoto University	KyotoU	Japan	2023/04/07	English	students
The Chinese University of Hong Kong	CUHK	Hong Kong SAR	2023/03	English	students
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	HKUST	Hong Kong SAR	unspecified	English	students, instructors, and researchers
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University	PolyU	Hong Kong SAR	2023/04	English	students
Universiti Malaya	UM	Malaysia	2023/02/21	English	students
National Taiwan University	NTU Taiwan	Taiwan	unspecified	English	students and instructors
City University of Hong Kong	CityU	Hong Kong SAR	2023/09/04	English	instructors
Korea University	KoreaU	South Korea	2023/03/15	Korean	Students; instructors
Osaka University	OsakaU	Japan	2023/04/17	English	Students
Tokyo Institute of Technology	Tokyo Tech	Japan	2023/04/20	English	students
Tohoku University	TohokuU	Japan	2023/03/30	English	Students; instructors
Sungkyunkwan University	SKKU	South Korea	2023/07	English	Students; instructors
Universiti Putra Malaysia	UPM	Malaysia	2023/02/02	English	instructors
Kyushu University	KyushuU	Japan	2023/08/23	Japanese	Students; instructors
Nagoya University	NagoyaU	Japan	unspecified	Japanese	students; instructors; researchers
Hokkaido University	HokkaidoU	Japan	2023/05/31	English	Students; instructors
Waseda University	Waseda	Japan	2023/04/21	English	students; instructors; researchers
Chulalongkorn University	CU	Thailand	2023/07/17	English	students; instructors; researchers
Keio University	Keio	Japan	2023/05/15	English	students
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University	NYCU	Taiwan	2023/05/24	Chinese	Students; instructors; researchers
National Cheng Kung University	NCKU	Taiwan	unspecified	Chinese	Students; instructors
National Tsing Hua University	NTHU	Taiwan	2023/05/01	English	Students; instructors
Universitas Indonesia	UI	Indonesia	2023/03/30	English	Students; instructors
University of Macau	UMac	Macau SAR	unspecified	English	Students; instructors
Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology	UNIST	South Korea	2023/07/28	English	students; instructors; researchers

Note. Data was updated to December 15, 2023.

Table

Ccode	Definition	Example (content directly quoted from the policy document)
Be informed and cautious	Emphasizes the dual nature of GenAI tools – the capability and limitation, and argues for a balanced approach to leverage its benefits and managing the consequences in an informed, cautious, and critical way.	“The University of Tokyo will not uniformly prohibit the use of natural language-generation AI tools, such as ChatGPT, in educational settings. While understanding the issues associated with such technology, we will actively explore its potential applications to education, research, and university administration, and we will continue to engage in dialogue about knowledge on its use and related precautions as well as its long-term impact” (UTokyo).
Embracing AI	A proactive and forward-thinking approach to integrating GenAI into the academic context with an emphasis on the inevitable trend of GenAI integration and necessity of AI literacy/competency among both students and educators.	“The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has announced its commitment to incorporating next-generation artificial intelligence technology, GenAI, into its teaching and learning environment starting from the 2023–24 academic year … This incorporation of GenAI will establish it as the fifth literacy for HKU students, alongside the current four literacies of oral, written, visual, and digital communication, under the HKU communication-intensive course (CiC) initiative … HKU embraces GenAI and recognizes AI literacy as essential to teaching and learning. Our goal is to enable our teachers and students to become not only AI literate but also leaders in exploiting the vast potential of GenAI for the benefit of mankind” (HKU).
Responding to the changes	A responsive and reactive approach to manage the changes and challenges brought about by GenAI technologies, with an emphasis on the new realities as the force of change.	“ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS such as ChatGPT are now essentially costless and no longer require special expertise to use. As part of the repertoire of tools available in the modern world, we understand how you–our students–might be drawn to using them. It is also likely employers and stakeholders will soon assume that graduates have a basic competency for using such tools, just like how they now assume that new hires are able to use calculators, spreadsheets, and word processing software … That said, there are some things we need you to take to heart” (NUS).