We all can relate to that experience of submitting our assignments through Turnitin and waiting for the dreaded Similarity Score. What you don’t see is another score that your work gets. This score isn’t your mark but how much of your work may have been created by AI. This is the Turnitin AI Detector score.

The University has had the AI Detection turn on for over a year. We often talk about AI to make things more efficient and easier so you would assume a detection tool would help the marking process. However, this has not been the case for our students who have seen a significant increase in the number of academic misconduct allegations on AI use.

The frustration students feel around academic misconduct is not missed on us and Jay, your President, has been working over the last couple of months to resolve. This is what he has to say:

“This is a win for fairness. For too long, students were at risk of being misjudged by a tool that wasn’t built to fully understand human learning. We stood up to the machine and won. For every student wrongly flagged, doubted, or stressed by a system still developing its own understanding, this is your victory. Real people, not algorithms, should decide your future. Turning it off is a step toward restoring trust, and we’re proud to have stood up for you.” #TurnItOff!

We want to sincerely thank the University for listening to student voices and working with us to make this important change possible. Together, we’re building a fairer, more trusting learning environment for all students.

So, what are we doing about it

Well, we feel your rage against the machine and have been advocating for the whole Academic Misconduct process is be reviewed and improved as we know there need to be a process. However, we feel this process should not leave you confused, anxious or negatively impacted. We are working with the University to review and ensure that any process is fair, just, and fit for purpose.

However, we are not just waiting for a policy but pushing change and action where we can. This is why at a recent Education Committee meeting Jay, your President, voted to have the AI Detection Tool in Turnitin shut down and communicated to students. We are happy to confirm that the tool is switched off so any assignment you submit from now will not be analysed by the tool.

Your markers will continue to review work and assess for any suspected use of AI but we hope that without the AI detector this will be more accurate and create less false positives of AI use,