Academic integrity

Regulator says proportion of top marks awarded by institutions still way above what might be expected

AI-assisted software makes it easier for students to forge medical evidence for disciplinary hearings, says legal expert

Allegations of corruption and concerns about academic integrity will not be addressed without frank conversations, says university president

Academics warn recall-based exams are ‘obsolete’ and policing AI is ‘unrealistic’ after hundreds admit manipulating online exam at Yonsei University

‘Little universities can do’ to stop Beijing interference as politicians on both sides of the Atlantic mull enhanced restrictions

Two London universities deemed to have breached new rules on safeguarding qualifications as regulator sounds alarm over how degree classifications are calculated

Universities say limit could dissuade ‘cases with little merit’, but student organisations warn of unfair advantage for wealthy

Academic who travelled to Kenya to meet those ghostwriting university work says practice is ‘completely reshaping our future’

Poll finds most students see generative technology as a support tool, but small minority use it for entire assessment submissions

No correct solution to the challenge of assessment in the age of generative AI, and academics must be given ‘permission’ to tailor their approaches, Australian researchers say

Failure to explain how AI-aided academic writing is a form of plagiarism leaves graduate students horribly compromised, says E.M. Wolkovich

Asking undergraduates to submit pen-on-paper essays is a desperate and retrograde step that undermines assessment rather than safeguards it, says Dan Sarofian-Butin

Ombudsman tells universities to be mindful of ‘limitations’ of detection tools and to consider if they are biased against international students

This year’s marking season has confirmed for many academics that, less than three years since the launch of ChatGPT, AI use by students has become so rife that their submitted writing is no longer a reliable indicator of what they have learned. Three scholars offer their views on where to go from here

Widespread use of new tools has ‘blurred lines’ between academic support and misconduct, study finds

Concerns piling on more tests may harm students as artificial intelligence forces re-evaluation of assessment methods

The only way to prevent AI from undermining assessments is to design them that way, Australian researchers argue

Academics at UCL’s law school challenge sector’s embrace of technology, claiming students’ over-reliance on ‘shortcuts’ damages skills acquisition

Having won three previous lawsuits, Jokowi in court again over supposed inconsistencies between typed thesis and its printed cover pages

Disputes over the trustworthiness of India’s state-run university rankings raise questions over quality assurance efforts, says Pushkar

Seven in 10 institutions allow students to take remote tests unsupervised, casting doubt on ‘validity’ of degrees, study finds

Bridget Phillipson flags ‘wide-scale organised exploitation’ as she announces new measures to combat fraud connected to franchised provision

Universities should prioritise ensuring that assessments are ‘assessing what we mean to assess’ rather than letting conversations be dominated by discussions around cheating

One in four students tell Hepi they use text generated by tools such as ChatGPT in submitted work

Administrative workloads rise as many more learners ‘dishonestly’ claim health-related essay extensions, survey suggests

We can’t just concede that usage is ethical if within universities’ narrowly conceived rules. What about the pursuit of truth, asks Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin

Two ministers resigned over ‘textual similarities’ in their master’s theses, while one student was acquitted of ‘self-plagiarism’ after taking case to Supreme Court

Collegium Humanum allegedly issued more than 1,000 fast-track MBA degrees in exchange for ‘financial and personal benefits’

Figures reveal dramatic rise in AI-related misconduct at Russell Group universities, with further questions raised by sector’s ‘patchy record-keeping’ and inconsistent approach to detection

‘Over-regulation’ feared as actual use of new technologies lags far behind perceptions of university staff

US-based education support site taken to court by regulator, in first test of nascent legislation

Booming business school that withheld 20 per cent of lecturers’ pay unless they passed nearly all students is heavily criticised by watchdog

Essay mills pivoting to offering low-cost services to avoid plagiarism checks

Google, LinkedIn and X warned that adverts for contract cheating services have ‘proliferated’ despite legislative bans

Australian scholars say improving response times make website ‘an appealing tool’ for cheating, but findings are disputed

Government employees with qualifications from a private college in Rajasthan face scrutiny after allegations of fake degree ploy emerge

University of Glasgow philosophers behind viral ‘ChatGPT is bullshit’ paper claim student AI use is linked to dubious techno optimism of billionaire Silicon Valley moguls

Generative AI is ‘a bit like teenage snogging – everyone’s doing it although no one really knows how’

ChatGPT scores half a grade higher than psychology undergraduates in experiment at University of Reading

‘It’s not a machine for cheating; it’s a machine for producing crap,’ says one professor infuriated by rise of bland scripts

Perhaps AI will be a useful tool. But our obsession with every shiny new object regardless of the harm it might do makes me worry, says Melinda Zook

Making people paranoid about employing familiar and useful words is not the way to encourage responsible AI use, say Lilian Schofield and Xue Zhou 

Universities must gear themselves up to deal with an activity that has ‘evolutionary roots’, academic integrity expert argues

Inflated marks, overworked staff and politically compromised courses are the price of exploiting offshore UK-registered students, says Michael Day

The weaponisation of plagiarism allegations to remove Harvard’s president is no cause for celebration, says research fraudbuster David Sanders

Sherri Ann Charleston described as having repeated instances of multiple sentences matching others’ writings, mirroring complaints that took down university’s first black president

Survey finds evidence of ‘emerging digital divide’ as majority of undergraduates say they use generative AI to help with assessments

Sandra Borch apologises for making ‘big mistake’ while completing her master’s thesis

The departure of Claudine Gay from Harvard was said to be politically motivated but most other leaders have also fallen on their swords when their scholarship is questioned

Government bars recognition of degrees from Benin and Togo, and suggests it could extend this to Uganda, Kenya and Niger

Universities in conservative region decline to add DEI component to their conditions of accreditation

Lack of clear guidelines may put instructors on ‘defensive’ over students’ use of ChatGPT, researchers say

Apparently widespread use of Bluetooth earpieces by medical school entrance candidates in one province has forced a re-sit, say four researchers 

A convincing veneer of academic integrity can help bring about the real thing, finds literature review

Dutch student complained that anti-cheating software did not work due to her skin colour, but university said problems were universal

Daniel Diermeier reflects on traversing the increasingly polarised US political landscape and on disagreeing with staff and students pressing for the university to take sides

Universities should target major platforms that continue to host adverts for contract cheating companies, finds UCL report

While ChatGPT is not officially available in the country, many users bypass restrictions or use similar tools

Those with passionate convictions must be willing to concede their arguments may be flawed or even wrong if useful debate is to happen on campus, says UCL president Michael Spence

If Stanford’s now-departed president had fully faced up to dubious practices in his lab and insisted on corrections, his infractions of research integrity could have been forgiven, says David Sanders