GenAI and Exams: What the New Policy Actually Means for You

Starting in autumn 2025, CBS will allow students to use Generative AI (GenAI) in most take-home exams and final projects in mandatory courses. This change will be extended to all courses from 2026/2027, making GenAI the default in assessments at CBS.

If you’re a course coordinator, lecturer, or examiner, you might be wondering:

“What exactly does this mean for my course—and what should I do now?”

What’s changing, exactly?

From Fall 2025, students will be allowed to use Generative AI in all exams and final projects in mandatory courses (and mandatory courses offered as electives)—except for written sit-in exams, where GenAI remains prohibited.

Then, from Fall 2026, this policy will extend to all courses, including electives.

This policy is actually the result of a gradual process.

Back in Spring 2024, CBS took the first step by allowing GenAI in final projects, including:

• Bachelor’s projects
• Final projects (HD/executive programmes)
• Master’s theses

Teachers were also given the option to permit GenAI use in other types of assessments—but only if they explicitly stated it in the course description. This flexibility was a step in the right direction, but it proved to be a bit unsustainable. As AI tools became more widely used, it became clear that operating under multiple frameworks wasn’t effective. Both students and staff were left uncertain about where GenAI was allowed and where it wasn’t and how it was supposed to be used.

To address this inconsistency, we decided to establish one clear framework for all courses. The goal is to move away from fragmented practices and towards a consistent, responsible approach to integrating AI.

The new guidelines reflect the reality:

• AI is here to stay, and trying to ban it completely is not practical.
• Instead, CBS wants to support students in using GenAI responsibly while also maintaining assessment security.

Guidelines can be accessed via SAR (Danish version and English version)

Written Sit-In Exams are excluded from the new guidelines

While GenAI will become the default for most assessments, written sit-in exams remain an exception.

• These exams ban AI use by default.
• At EDQ, we’re investigating the 77 courses that use written sit-in exams with all aids allowed.
• We’ve gathered feedback from a survey and are planning focus groups to figure out whether this format is still secure and viable.

Timeline: From Ban to Embrace

What do I need to do now?

🗓️ April–July 2025 (Mandatory Courses)

If you’re teaching a mandatory course (or a course that’s offered as both mandatory and elective), you can update your course description and update the following:

• Revise your course description (learning objectives, course content, etc.)
• Evaluate your assessment format
  • Can GenAI be appropriately used in your exam format?
  • If not, you can opt out but you’ll need to clearly state this in the course description under the block of exam procedure

Note: The deadline for changes depends from study board to study board.

🗓️ September–December 2025 (All Courses – Assessment Revisions)

During the fall semester, program regulations are revised. This is the period when:

• You can revise assessment methods for any course
• Course coordinators of electives should prepare for the academic year 2026–2027.
• This is the ideal time to rethink assessments that might be vulnerable to AI use.

Should I opt out?

Should I opt out? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. That’s the point. The guidelines are flexible, but they also expect you to make an informed, pedagogical decision.

Some questions worth asking yourself:

• Can students use AI to complete your exam with minimal effort?
• Is that a problem—or does your exam already assess deeper thinking?
• Does the use of AI align with the learning objectives your course is trying to foster?

If your assessment is based on regurgitating facts or producing polished text, you might want to rethink the format. And if you do opt out of AI, keep in mind: it’s hard to detect GenAI use. Prohibiting it may not mean preventing it.

Looking for support?

If you’re unsure how to approach revising your assessments or course descriptions, consider reaching out to your local learning consultant. We’re happy to discuss your specific context and help you figure out what makes sense for your course.

We also facilitating workshops to support this transition, so keep an eye on the EDQ’s Course Catalogue.

If you’re part of a group of teachers from a department interested in discussing these changes together, we can also help facilitating a personalized workshop to address your needs.