Institutional policy responses to generative AI in European higher education: a scoping review of published research

Abstract

The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education has made it increasingly urgent to define institutional responses capable of addressing its pedagogical, ethical, organisational and regulatory implications. Within this context, this study presents a scoping review of published research on policy responses to GenAI in European higher education. The review was conducted through searches in Scopus, Web of Science and ERIC, with inclusion criteria defined according to the SPIDER framework. The final corpus comprises ten studies published between 2024 and 2025, examining policies, guidelines and other institutional documents relating to GenAI. To synthesise the corpus, the review adopts an interpretive framework structured around four lenses: regulatory, pedagogical-integrative, implementation-oriented, and equity-, inclusion- and sustainability-oriented. The findings show that institutional policy responses are predominantly represented as concerned with regulating the use of GenAI, especially in relation to academic integrity, transparency, accountability, and permitted and non-permitted uses. At the same time, the included studies also frame GenAI as a resource to be integrated, albeit cautiously, into teaching, learning, assessment and AI literacy development. Overall, the review shows that the governance of GenAI in European universities is represented as still evolving and marked by uneven levels of policy development and institutional formalisation.