A survey this year by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) , a think-tank, found that more than 90% of university students admitted to using AI-assisted learning, the Times reported Monday, 19% of them will directly copy the AI output content. At Russell Group Universities, which discloses AI disciplinary data, only 51 people-0.25 per cent of more than 20,000 undergraduates-have been punished for abusing AI, equivalent to one in every 400 students.
The country’s Ivy League Russell Group have long promised“Rigour and integrity”. But the latest figures show a“Shockingly low” proportion of students at the group’s universities have been punished for abusing artificial intelligence for academic plagiarism. “Given that almost all students are using AI to complete their work, the low penalty rate means that a large number of violations go undetected,” said Josh Freeman, policy manager at HEPI. Notably, nine of the group’s 24 universities admitted not to have specifically recorded cases of AI-related punishments, despite the fact that leaders of all the group’s universities had previously signed a pledge of academic integrity.
An anonymous Russell Group Course Director estimates that at least a third of students violate academic norms when using AI tools, with 10 per cent of them submitting assignments generated entirely by AI directly. Fresh graduates from a London University revealed that, it often“Copy-pastes” its output into school assignments: “I ask the AI to adjust the text to my writing style and to filter the sources of the answers so strictly that they are never discovered.”
Last year 47 per cent of university students said generative AI“Makes cheating easier”, according to a survey by John Wylie International, the world’s leading academic publisher. HEPI’s February study found that 8% of students submitted unedited answers directly. “There is no reliable technology to detect traces of AI use,” warns Freeman. “Students can circumvent censorship by switching platforms, customising writing styles and other strategies.”
In the face of the technical challenges, four UK universities, including the University of Durham and King’s College London, confirmed that they had expelled some undergraduates for abusing AI to complete their courses. Russell group said the rise of generative AI posed a common challenge to the higher education industry, with schools working with outside experts to develop policy frameworks and adjust the way teaching is evaluated to ensure AI is used in compliance.