It was nearing the end of semester and results had just been released for final law assessments.
“Mary”, a pseudonym to protect her identity as a student, sat at her computer, refreshing the browser, wondering why her grades would not load.
An email arrived. It was from the course coordinator about the widespread use of artificial intelligence, but Mary ignored it — she was a mature-aged student and AI was not in her wheelhouse.
The university, however, said otherwise.
Universities such as QUT use AI to detect AI in student assessments. (ABC News: Chris Gillette)
Using AI detection software, Queensland University of Technology last week red-flagged Mary and many of her classmates’ work as AI generated.
Now, with exams less than a month away, they are all staring down the barrel of academic misconduct.
“We’re looking at the same piece of legislation, we’re quoting the same cases, we’re looking at the same issues,” Mary told the ABC.
“And yet it’s marked in red as not your original work.”
Mary’s story follows revelations that the Australian Catholic University accused thousands of students of AI-related academic misconduct, only to conclude months later that many had done nothing wrong.
The ABC can now reveal that ACU is just one part of a sector-wide problem.
At least a dozen Australian universities are using AI detection software to catch AI cheating, and they are making mistakes.
Across the country, university and TAFE students told the ABC their institutions were relying on the tools to put individuals and entire cohorts on notice for academic misconduct.
Students all echoed the same story — the experience had cost them money, time and stress while grades were withheld, subjects failed, and graduation prospects ruined.
“It’s financial, it’s professional, it’s personal,” Mary said.
“A couple of thousand dollars for the subject, the cost to your [Grade Point Average], and if you are studying law in Australia, like me, and found guilty of academic misconduct, will the Law Society even register you?”
In a statement, Queensland University of Technology told the ABC its students were all educated on the “expected standards of AI” and offered support if needed.
Bargaining chips
The ABC heard from multiple students about the implications of academic misconduct — from the initial allegation, through the dispute process, to the looming potential for a guilty finding — and many said it made them reconsider their degrees.
For Victorian student Beth, it cut her higher education short.
She did two degrees at the University of Melbourne and said she was twice accused of using AI to cheat.
On both occasions, Beth told the ABC the university gave her “an effective plea bargain” — if she wished to avoid a formal academic misconduct finding Beth needed to stop fighting the case and accept a “lesser” punishment.
In the first instance, Beth was a 19-year old undergraduate arts student, and that “bargaining chip” was a penalty of four marks on a written assessment.
“They made it very clear that the four marks weren’t just because it got flagged, but because I’d wasted their time arguing my case,” she said.
“I just decided to take the punishment because I was simply too scared to argue further.”
Jump forward two years and Beth was in the middle of an honours in ancient world studies.
This time, she said a series of em-dashes caught the attention of an AI detector, and in exchange for a formal finding the university wanted Beth to re-write her essay in full.
Some University of Melbourne students claim it cultivated a culture of fear and anxiety around academic misconduct and AI use. (AAP: Luis Enrique Ascui)
Fed up and upset, Beth withdrew from her degree, and for six months doubted herself, second guessed her intelligence, and lost all confidence in her writing and work.
“I was an archaeologist and a heritage advisor doing really important work, but I would just think, ‘I’m too stupid to be here, Melbourne Uni thinks I’m using generative AI and I’m dumb’,” Beth said.
“I was really in this spiral of what I like to call like an AI depression.”
The ABC spoke to other students like Beth who said the university had cultivated a culture of fear and anxiety around academic misconduct and AI use.
University of Melbourne Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Gregor Kennedy would not comment on allegations the institution encouraged students to admit to wrongdoing, but said it “proactively” educated students and staff on academic integrity issues, including use of AI.
Scale of the problem
Australia is home to 43 universities.
While each must comply with the higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Authority (TEQSA), institutions are also entitled to make their own policies on things like AI.
It is why TEQSA and peak body Universities Australia both told the ABC they had no data on which universities were and were not using AI to detect AI.
According to TEQSA, the rules are that AI detector tools are allowed, they are just not recommended on their own.
But many universities are still relying on the software, often in isolation.
The ABC confirmed more than a dozen — including Queensland University of Technology and University of Melbourne.
Some experts estimate that figure to be closer to 30.
Mark Bassett says the high use of AI detector tools were a “lazy” alternative to curriculum redesign. (Supplied: Mark Bassett)
Associate Professor Mark Bassett, in charge of academic integrity and AI at Charles Sturt University, said the numbers were high because AI software offered a “lazy” alternative to curriculum and assessment redesign.
“It lets leaders at universities point to something they’ve done,” Dr Bassett told the ABC.
“So when TEQSA comes and says, ‘What are you doing about mitigating the risks of Gen AI?’ They can say, ‘Well, we’ve got the detector’.”
Time for a rethink?
There is no national approach to AI in the university sector.
It is what students and staff described to the ABC as a “smorgasbord of incompetence” and a “game of hit and hope”.
Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy would not comment on whether it was time for a rethink.
“Universities are taking their own approaches to AI,” he told the ABC.
Luke Sheehy suggests taking complaints about university decisions to the National Student Ombudsman. (Supplied)
Mr Sheehy acknowledged the sector was struggling to keep pace with the speed of AI development, but said universities were updating their policies and processes.
“I sympathise with students that have gone through a process where it looks like they’ve been accused of cheating and they haven’t, but it’s also important that there’s a proper process to review that,” Mr Sheehy said.
“[Students] have the National Student Ombudsman to further their complaints should they not be satisfied with the universities’ outcome.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare did not respond to repeated requests for comment.