Foreign fee-dependent Sydney University has given up trying to stop students from using AI to cheat and will now allow the use of software like ChatGPT on assessments.
Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Adam Bridgeman said the prestigious university, where 51% of enrolments are international students, had decided trying to stop the use of AI was “untenable” and would phase in the new system next year.
The previous cheating policy stating that AI was not to be used unless “expressly permitted” has now been reversed to allow AI unless expressly forbidden, and the changes were signed off on by the academic board on Tuesday.
“What we need to do is make sure that we’re not fooling ourselves when we set a piece of homework. AI will help the students complete their homework, and that’s fine,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“The reality is that the students are using it and we’re not able to detect it. So to just tell students ‘don’t use it’ is untenable.”
The cheating policy capitulation comes two months after the university found that international students made up almost 100% of exam misconduct referrals and about 80% of all cases of student misconduct following a shift to online exams, while in March it disclosed 330 instances of AI plagiarism.
Assessments will now be divided into “lane one” assessments held under exam-like conditions where AI would remain banned, and “lane two” where AI would be allowed. Mr Bridgeman said lane one assessments would be conducted in person and cover key skills, and claimed it would “strengthen our position integrity”.
Sydney University AI working group members Angad Chawla, 20, and Helia Nateghi Baygi, 27, welcomed the changes, and said they regularly use artificial intelligence in their coursework.
“I do believe there are issues of overreliance – just walking through the library, everyone has that [ChatGPT] tab open,” Mr Chawla said, but said that students could not succeed by using AI alone.
“Calculators never killed mathematics skills. It’s better that we embrace this technology and empower students rather than banning it altogether,” Ms Baygi said.
Sydney University will raise tuition for international students by 7% in 2025, after making $1.4 billion in revenue from foreign fees last year.
All New South Wales universities make 40% of their total student fees from students from just three countries – China, India and Nepal.
Earlier this year academics at several Australian universities complained that students are able to graduate despite blatantly cheating and/or being unable to speak basic English, and international student numbers are now so high that locals have reported entire classes being run in Chinese.
[Header image: Toby Hudson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
.jpg){kind=link}