OfS warns AI could undermine confidence in England’s university degrees

England’s higher education regulator says the widespread use of AI in student work is making some coursework difficult to assess reliably and could threaten confidence in university degrees. The Office for Students (OfS) urged universities to do more to protect academic standards, including greater use of AI-free assessments, and warned that institutions could face sanctions if their assessment methods fail to measure students’ knowledge and skills.

A joint OfS and Advance HE report drew on interviews with more than 300 students and staff at 127 universities and colleges this year. It found reports of students using AI to complete assessments quickly, earning similar grades to peers and sometimes being unable to recall details of work they had submitted. Universities are already trying alternatives such as in-person written exams, oral examinations, assessments that critique AI output and tasks that document how students developed their work.