A question you have probably already asked yourself
You are sitting down to start an assessment and, somewhere in the first five minutes, a question pops into your head: am I allowed to use GenAI for this?
Previously, the answer depended on knowing whether your assessment is "Type A", "Type B" or "Type C". It is not always obvious, it varies unit to unit, and it is one more thing to figure out before you have even started the actual work.
From September 2026, we are replacing that system with something much easier to hold in your head: Two-Lane.
What is Two-Lane?
Two-Lane does exactly what it sounds like. Every assessment sits in one of two lanes:
- Closed lane: GenAI is not permitted, and the assessment itself is designed so that you cannot realistically use it. Think invigilated exams, tests, and practical or oral assessments where you do not have access to AI tools.
- Open lane: GenAI use is permitted. This covers written or otherwise recorded coursework, along with any exam or test where you could feasibly access GenAI tools even if you choose not to.
That is it. No more working out which letter category applies to which piece of work. Your assessment brief will simply tell you which lane you are in.
Why the change?
The old ABC system tried to define, quite specifically, what you were and were not allowed to do with GenAI on a given piece of work. The problem is that GenAI models and tools are moving fast, and rules built around specific permitted or forbidden uses age quickly. What counted as an appropriate use of GenAI a year ago might already look different today.
Two-Lane takes a different approach. Instead of trying to police exactly how you use a tool, it asks a more durable question: can you demonstrate the intended learning outcomes, regardless of the tools available to you? If the answer is no, unless the assessment is designed to prevent GenAI use, it belongs in the closed lane. If the answer is yes, it is open lane, and you are free to decide how, if at all, GenAI supports your work on it.
This is a deliberate shift away from treating GenAI use as something to be monitored and restricted, and towards helping you build genuine GenAI literacy: the judgement to know when a tool is helpful, when it is not, and how to use it well.
What this means for you, practically
- Your assessment brief will state your lane. From the 2026/27 academic year, assessment briefs and related materials will tell you clearly whether a piece of work is open lane or closed lane.
- Guidance will be less prescriptive, but not absent. Rather than a list of specifically permitted or forbidden uses, staff will explain how GenAI might genuinely help or hinder you on a particular assessment, so you can make an informed choice. The exception is anything that would constitute an assessment offence, which remains off-limits regardless of lane.
- Open lane does not mean "use GenAI for everything, however you like." It means you are permitted to use it, provided you do so in line with academic integrity requirements, including acknowledging and referencing that use appropriately. Some staff may also design open lane assessments that specifically ask you to engage with GenAI as part of the task itself.
- If an assessment asks you to use GenAI and you have concerns about doing so, for religious, ethical, cultural or political reasons, for example, talk to your course team. As with any assessment that raises this kind of sensitivity, staff will consider whether there is an alternative way for you to meet the same learning outcomes.
Using GenAI well, not just permissibly
Being told which lane you are in answers the "am I allowed?" question. It does not answer the more interesting one: how do I use GenAI in a way that actually helps my learning, rather than quietly undermining it? If that question interests you, it is worth reading about the Effort Paradox, the idea that the effort you are tempted to hand over to GenAI is often exactly what makes learning stick.
For support on the ethical and effective side of things, a good place to start is the Skills Centre, which has resources dedicated to using GenAI well. If you need guidance on acknowledging and referencing GenAI use in your work, the Library's referencing and plagiarism resources cover this directly.
Two resources are especially worth your time if you want a fuller picture:
- Academic Integrity in the Context of GenAI: Navigates through the university's Academic Integrity Statement and what it means in practice, how the different assessment categories relate to GenAI, and how to reference GenAI use correctly in your own work.
- Academic Misconduct and GenAI: Covers what can go wrong: the kinds of misconduct GenAI is most often involved in, how severe versus moderate misconduct and poor academic practice differ, and what actually happens if a concern about your work is raised.
Neither resource takes long to work through, and both leave you with a much clearer sense of where the boundaries are, so you can use GenAI with confidence rather than guesswork.
The bottom line
Two-Lane will not tell you how to use GenAI well. That is still down to your judgement, and it is a skill worth developing deliberately, not just picking up by accident. What it will do is remove the guesswork about whether you are allowed to use it at all. Check your assessment brief, know your lane, and use the tools available to actually support your learning, not just to get the task finished.
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