English regulator: students complete university assignments with AI in minutes

The regulator has identified a systemic risk to the quality of assessment

Too many university students in England may be using artificial intelligence to complete assessed work in ways that teachers do not notice — this is the warning issued by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), BBC News reports. According to new research by OfS and the charity Advance HE, a 'significant proportion' of assessments take place in unsupervised, uncontrolled formats where students have access to AI, and many of these can be completed to a high standard 'with limited involvement' of the student themselves — sometimes in a matter of minutes. The regulator also concluded that students can often use AI 'in ways that cannot be reliably detected' and called this a 'significant risk' to confidence in qualifications.

What the findings are based on and who proposes what

The research draws on the views of 244 higher education staff and 91 students from at least 127 universities. Staff surveyed reported assignments that looked identical and said they considered the assessment systems at their institutions 'not fit for purpose'; some students, according to the authors, avoid AI for environmental and other reasons, creating a 'polarised atmosphere'. OfS considers closed-book (without access to materials) and practical exams the most reliable formats, and the regulator's director of strategy, Josh Fleming, called for 'much wider use of AI-free assessment'. The report speaks of an 'urgent need' to ensure the validity of remote and 'unsecured' formats: if an assignment can be completed with AI without verifiable knowledge and skills, it should be replaced.

What changes in practice and how the sector responds

The practical consequence for institutions: universities that fail to meet OfS quality standards fall under the proposals currently being discussed — they could lose the right to charge higher tuition fees or have their student numbers capped. Universities UK, which represents more than 140 institutions, countered that universities 'are making significant progress': many have already made 'substantial changes' — more in-person exams, presentations, oral defences (vivas), process-based assessment, and assignments that integrate AI in a controlled way — and are asking that universities retain flexibility in choosing methods. Separate context is provided by research from Swansea Universitycited by the BBC: 93 universities in the UK still use, in one form or another, remote online exams that were widely introduced during the pandemic — that is, precisely those 'unsecured' formats whose validity the regulator questions. Lewis Wilson, a representative of the National Union of Students, for his part, called essays, handouts and slides a threat to 'traditional' teaching methods, which students and staff 'have long said are not fit for purpose', and called for developing new practices together with students.

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