Universities are accused of giving students the green light for cheating as they reject technology aimed at tackling AI plagiarism
Universities have been accused of giving students a green light to cheat after boycotting the rollout of new technology this week aimed at tackling an ‘epidemic’ of AI plagiarism.
Academics say they fear the implementation of the new software would be too close to exam season.
But last night, Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the boycott was akin to ‘aiding and abetting cheating’.
Some 98 per cent of universities already use existing software called Turnitin to check whether work has been plagiarised.
The firm has now updated the software in order to keep pace with rapid developments in cheating due to AI technology.
Academics say they fear the implementation of the new software would be too close to exam season
But UCISA – which represents universities in the tech sector – wrote to the company to say that 88 per cent of universities were opposed to introducing the updated version of the software.
Deborah Green, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA), which coordinated the response, described the move to introduce it as ‘completely unheard of’ during the summer exam period and said that most universities opted out over fairness to students, some of whom will have already submitted work.
Experts have warned that the cheating epidemic is already at the point where AI can write entire projects, and then a different AI tool can reword it to make AI undetectable.
A spokesman for Universities UK said: ‘Universities are absolutely committed to academic integrity and have become increasingly experienced at dealing with the issues raised by new technology such as AI.’
