Universities have identified at least 416 suspected cases where students may have used AI to gain an advantage in exams or assessments.<\/p>\n
However, gaps remain, as a number of higher education institutions still do not record instances of suspected AI misuse as a standalone figure.<\/p>\n
The University of Galway identified 298 cases where AI was suspected to have been used by students to cheat.<\/p>\n
It is one of the only universities to collect specific data on cheating with AI, Freedom of Information documents show.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the university identified four suspected cases of \u2018contract cheating\u2019, which is when a student uses an undeclared or unauthorised third party to assist them to produce work for academic credit.<\/p>\n
Since 2024, the university recorded 142 cases where a student was suspected for plagiarising work for their assignments.<\/p>\n
Following initial investigations, a further 285 cases of suspected cheating were confirmed by the university. This included 285 cases of AI being used to cheat.<\/p>\n
No students were expelled as a result of academic misconduct during official university examinations, the records show.<\/p>\n
University College Cork (UCC) first started to formally record unauthorised use of AI in the 2023\/24 academic year.<\/p>\n
It recorded 38 cases of unauthorised use in the academic year 2023\/24, and a further 22 in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n
No records are available yet for the current academic year, it said.<\/p>\n
UCC distinguishes between \u201cacademic misconduct\u201d and \u201cexam breaches\u201d, handling each under different policies.<\/p>\n
Prior to the 2024\/25 academic year, \u201cacademic misconduct\u201d was more generally referred to as \u201cplagiarism\u201d at UCC.<\/p>\n
Since 2021, the college has recorded 105 exam breaches, generally recorded during invigilated examinations.<\/p>\n
Each school at UCC has discretion to deal with suspected cases of plagiarism and other academic misconduct at local level, according to the university.<\/p>\n
Since 2020, at least 467 students have been found to have breached academic standards, either through plagiarism or academic misconduct.<\/p>\n
However, this data only comes from a handful of schools, as there previously was no requirement for them to report cases centrally with the university.<\/p>\n
The marking of final assessments for the 2024\/25 academic year is also still ongoing for masters level students, and the final results for some students will not be ratified by an exam board until January 2026.<\/p>\n
No UCC students have been expelled because of plagiarism or academic misconduct or an exam breach.<\/p>\n
However, 105 cases have proceeded to disciplinary action, with 68 students receiving warnings from the college.<\/p>\n
A further 36 students were sanctioned by the college.<\/p>\n
At Munster Technological University (MTU) 274 students have been suspected of academic misconduct across its Cork and Kerry campuses since 2019.<\/p>\n
Examples of this included the use of unauthorised material during an exam, such as notes or mobile phones, as well as plagiarism.<\/p>\n
Records released by Trinity College Dublin show the college does not categorise AI misuse specifically relating to AI when recording cases of academic misconduct.<\/p>\n
The university began piloting new academic misconduct procedures in 2023.<\/p>\n
Its annual report for that year found the number of reported academic misconduct cases recorded “significantly increased\u201d especially when compared with a decline in previous years.<\/p>\n
The report noted how the move to remote learning during the covid-19 pandemic, and the development of AI tools \u201caccentuated the need for the development of policies and practices to robustly address the challenges posed to preserving the academic integrity of assessments\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the academic year 2023\/24, 160 instances were recorded, compared to 31 in 2022\/23, and 74 in 2021\/22.<\/p>\n
TCD categorises academic misconduct into four categories. This included 97 cases of poor academic practice or conduct, 48 cases of minor academic misconduct, and 13 cases of major academic misconduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe largest proportion of cases of misconduct continues to be seen in a small number of programmes and is limited to certain programmes in specific faculties,\u201d the report noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was also a total of 55 cases of examination infringements recorded among undergraduate students in 2023\/24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Office of the Junior Dean stated that these minor infringements consisted of possessing a mobile phone or smart device in an exam.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2024, academic integrity descriptions at the university were also updated to specify that unauthorised use of Generative AI is considered a misconduct.<\/p>\n
At the Royal College of Surgeons, 51 students have been suspected of cheating in exams since 2021.<\/p>\n
A further 96 cases students have been suspected of plagiarising work for their assignments.<\/p>\n
Since 2023, there have been 43 cases where AI was suspected to have been used by students to cheat.<\/p>\n
Of these, 36 cases were recorded in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n
No RCSI students have been expelled in connection with suspected academic misconduct.<\/p>\n
At Maynooth University, 84 students have been suspected of cheating in exams since 2022.<\/p>\n
Almost 420 students have been suspected of plagiarising their work at the university between 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Of this, 64 cases proceeded to disciplinary action. Although one student was suspended for a \u201cfixed period\u201d, no expulsions were recorded at the university.<\/p>\n
At Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, there have been three cases of suspected use of AI to cheat.<\/p>\n
There were also 12 instances where AI was suspected to have been used by students to cheat at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn instances where a lecturer has a suspicion of AI usage, the student is spoken to and asked to resubmit the work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department of Further and Higher Education said academic integrity is a matter for individual higher education institutions with the support of Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).<\/p>\n
The National Academic Integrity Network has developed guidelines on academic integrity and generative AI.<\/p>\n
The Higher Education Authority is developing a policy framework on Generative AI in higher education, which will soon be published, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
This will provide guidance to colleges and ensure \u201clearners are supported to study and learn in environments where generative AI is used responsibly\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universities have identified at least 416 suspected cases where students may have used AI to gain an advantage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,2334,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-206698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}