MEMORANDUM: Artificial Intelligence Use in Dissertations, Theses and Capstones Fall 2026 Policy Requirement for Graduate Programs

The Graduate School recognizes that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in academic work has been exponentially increasing in recent years, posing new opportunities and challenges for graduate students and faculty. As graduate students complete their culminating work of dissertations, theses and capstones, it is critical for them to have clear guidance regarding the allowable and unacceptable use of AI.

Therefore, the Graduate School requires departments to develop policies for all master's and doctoral degrees regarding AI use in dissertations, theses and capstones by Fall 2026. The AI use policy for each program must be publicy available to graduate students both on program websites and in student handbooks. The following are excluded from this requirement: professional degrees (LLM, JD, JSD, MD, PharmD), Advanced Certificates and Micro-credential programs. An AI use policy is not required to be developed for master's programs where the only capstone option available is the comprehensive exam or the practicum.

Each program's AI policy for dissertations, theses and capstones must uphold the University at Buffalo's exceptional academic standards. Policies must ensure that our graduate students create new knowledge through original research. Simultaneously, policies must be discipline-specific, addressing the appropriate and allowable use of AI tools in the relevant professional field.

Given that the appropriate and allowable use of AI tools is discipline-specific, the Graduate School does not have a campus-wide policy regarding the permissibility of AI use in academic work. However, we encourage faculty to create positive AI use policies for graduate programs that clearly articulate both acceptable uses of AI as a sophisticated research tool and unacceptable uses that may violate academic integrity and prohibit the creation of independent, original work.

Resources are available to assist departments with the development of program policies on AI usage in dissertations, these and capstones:

• The Graduate School website provides details about policy requirements and offers suggested items for consideration in your policy development.
• The Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation (CATT) is actively developing resources to support faculty as they integrate AI into their teaching. New resources will be available in January 2026.
• University Libraries Subject Librarians can point chairs and directors of programs to the AI policies that exist in various professional organizations and highlight example policies from peer institutions. It should be noted that the Subject Librarian role is to guide departments to the resources they need to inform and write graduate program policies; Subject Librarians are not legal or ethical experts.
• University Libraries has published an AI Integrity Policies web library guide that provides references to AI integrity policies from various professional organizations and peer institutions along with common language found in course, departmental and university-wide AI integrity policies.

We recognize that academic units will need time to engage in local consultation and draft policy language. Additional information on the process and timeline for submitting finalized policy language, web resources and links to student handbooks will be provided to academic leaders in spring 2026, well in advance of the August 2026 implementation deadline.

Please reach out to the Graduate School if you have any follow-up questions or concerns.