Latest news with #academicmisconduct
ABC News
01-08-2025
- ABC News
Melbourne academic charged after child abuse material allegedly shown in lecture
Child abuse detectives have charged a 70-year-old academic after inappropriate images were allegedly displayed by accident during a university lecture earlier this year. The material was shown during a lecture at an unnamed university in Melbourne's CBD on February 5, detectives allege. The matter was reported to police and an investigation launched. Victoria Police said officers executed a warrant at a Middle Park address a week after the lecture, seizing multiple electronic items. Detectives travelled to Sydney to execute a warrant at an eastern suburbs property the following day, seizing further devices. The academic has been charged with three counts of possessing child abuse material, one of which is a Commonwealth offence, but it's not clear when he was charged. Police say their investigation into the matter was lengthy. The 70-year-old is due to face court next week.
CNA
18-07-2025
- CNA
NTU upholds zero mark for student initially accused of using AI
SINGAPORE: Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has upheld the zero mark awarded to a student who was accused of using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in her work. The case emerged after the student posted on Reddit on Jun 19 about being penalised for using AI in a final essay for a module because she made citation errors and used a reference organiser. After that, NTU convened a panel with AI experts to assess her appeal. She was one of three university students penalised for using the technology. NTU said on Friday (Jul 18) that the panel identified 14 instances of false citations or data in the submitted essay, noting that non-existent sources were cited and they were not 'mere typos'. 'The panel stipulated that citing non-existent sources is a serious form of academic misconduct as the accurate citation of sources is the foundation of academic research and writing. False citations of this nature are often due to factual inaccuracies generated by generative AI,' said NTU in its statement. All cases of academic misconduct are documented in the internal records of the students, the university said. 'The outcome of the appeal panel is final. We urge everyone to respect the integrity of the appeals process and refrain from making personal attacks against any individual involved.' Responding to questions from CNA about the outcome of her appeal, the student, who requested to remain anonymous, said the school confirmed to her that she was given a zero mark because of the mistakes in her essay, rather than for the use of AI. 'Their entire talk with me during the meeting was on how I can avoid making essay mistakes in the future, didn't tackle AI usage at all,' she told CNA. According to the student, the zero mark was upheld because of the professor's standards around writing. While she was reassured that there will be no permanent record, she still felt the situation was unfair. 'I'm just upset that there's no AI found so the goalpost shifted from AI to my writing standard,' she said. The student had admitted to using a reference organiser, which is a tool that collects and organises references and citations. She found the alphabetical order sorter online when she searched 'citation sorter A-Z'. 'They didn't bring up my citation sorter at all, which was initially one of the things I was penalised for,' she told CNA. As part of her appeal, she provided proof of her writing process. She paid for Draftback, a Google Chrome extension that records keystrokes, to retroactively show that she typed her essay out by hand instead of copying and pasting it from ChatGPT. When asked about the mistakes and why the school may have said they were not 'mere typos', the student declined to share a full list of the 14 mistakes because she was not sure if the document is confidential. Addressing the non-existent sources, she added: 'It's only non-existent because of the typos. And frankly writing citations wrongly is quite common amongst undergraduates. I just got unlucky.' She shared some examples of her mistakes – misspelling an author's last name as Lee instead of Li and two instances of getting the citation date wrong. 'Frankly speaking I'm too tired to fight any further and exhausted all my avenues. So I think I'll just move on, at least I know in my heart I didn't use AI and they couldn't prove it,' she said.
ABC News
10-07-2025
- ABC News
Murdoch University student fights accusation of illegal AI use in assignment
Mark McLauchlin is close to completing his nursing degree at Perth's Murdoch University, but an incident involving one assignment has "challenged his integrity in every way" and landed him in a protracted fight with the university's administration. In April, he was told a workbook he handed in had raised concerns. Excerpt from an email sent to Mr McLauchlin on April 3, 2025: "Data collected from sources such as Turnitin, in conjunction with academic insights from our experienced marking team, have led to the submission being deemed high risk for academic misconduct. These concerns relate to the potential use of artificial intelligence in the generation of your work, plagiarism, and/or collusion." A few days later, he was told an analysis of his work showed low editing time, evidence of chunks of text being cut and pasted into the document, and unusual formatting. Mr McLauchlin insists he has not cheated and the reason his assignment metadata shows evidence of "chunks of text being cut and paste" is because he used a grammar checking software, Grammarly, approved by the university. "I've been open and honest, right from the very first accusation, however the AI component of Grammarly was turned off," he said. "The tool is widely advertised and encouraged by the university for students to use to help them with their studies." The university conducted its own investigation and concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr McLauchlin had used AI for part of his assignment. It also noted he had successfully completed nine units of his course and had no record of previous misconduct. It decided Mr McLauchlin would receive only 70 per cent of the marks allocated to his workbook. He said while he had enough marks from other assignments to pass the unit — even with the reduced mark from the workbook — and was on track to complete the degree this year, he was not willing to let the matter go. "I guess my overall issue is that, still to date, Murdoch can't give me a word, sentence, paragraph, phrase or a pattern of AI [in my assignment]," Mr McLauchlin said. "I haven't used AI in the way that they believe that I've used AI. In a written statement, Murdoch University said it could not comment on Mr McLauchlin's case for privacy reasons, but all students were "required to complete an academic integrity module that includes instruction on the appropriate and inappropriate use of AI". "Where the use of generative AI in assessments is indicated, the university takes a considered and educative approach under established academic integrity processes," the statement read. "Our first priority is to support students in understanding appropriate academic practices. "Where concerns arise, our processes are designed to be fair, transparent and proportionate, with education and engagement prioritised before any punitive measures are considered." The issue of AI detection is playing out on campuses around Australia, as universities and students grapple with the widespread availability of generative AI programs like ChatGPT. Students are also increasingly worried about accusations, with some students choosing to run their assignments through checkers before handing them in, to make sure programs that check for plagiarism, like Turnitin, do not falsely accuse them of not doing original work. One student told ABC Radio Perth she and her peers were now taking pre-emptive action against accusations of cheating. Dale, a recently retired TAFE teacher, said the practice of using AI to complete assignments was widespread. "I found students used AI to write assignments, but actually had little knowledge of the subject," he said. "The machine has done the work, [the] student has no inherent knowledge." Mr McLauchlin said his latest appeal of the university's decision had failed, and he was now seeking legal advice on where he could go from here. He said it was not just about clearing his name, but about making a point to the university about its processes, which he said were impersonal and had not allowed him to fully make his case. "That's the other reason why I'm kind of really going for this … I really believe that they're not 100 per cent informed of the impact of what they do, and how that can have [an affect] on people," he said. Murdoch University said it welcomed "appeals and constructive feedback on our administrative processes" and was "committed to continuous improvement".
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
YAHOO POLL: Should universities rethink assessments to stay ahead in an AI world?
Three students from Nanyang Technological University recently received zero marks for an assignment over issues with the generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools they used in their work. They were penalised for academic misconduct as the assignments contained non-existent academic references and statistics or broken web links, as reported by ST. A panel with AI experts was convened by NTU to assess the appeal of one of the three penalised students. Other polls YAHOO POLL: Do you think CCP is a good option to help you land a high-paying job? YAHOO POLL: Are $7.3k jobs in Singapore too good to be true? YAHOO POLL: Are you happy with the new utility rates? Universities in Singapore do allow Gen AI use in varying degrees, but students must declare when and how they use such tools to maintain academic integrity. An ST report found that over the past three years, universities in Singapore were only reporting a low number of cases related to AI-related academic misconduct. However, experts cited in the report also warned of the potential risks that lie ahead. As AI technologies are here to stay, there is a growing need for universities to adapt, better integrate and improve. So we want to know, should universities rethink assessments to stay ahead in an AI world? Related NTU penalises 3 students over use of AI tools; they dispute university's findings Is AI cheating on the rise? Few cases reported by S'pore universities, but experts warn of risks Panel with AI experts to review appeal of NTU student penalised for academic misconduct
South China Morning Post
27-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
Do universities need a rethink on AI use for students? Singapore's NTU case causes a stir
A case at Singapore 's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) involving three students accused of academic misconduct over the use of generative AI (Gen AI) has prompted observers to question if tertiary institutions need clearer processes to deal with disputes. The students were told by their teacher in a briefing for a module on health, disease outbreaks and politics at the School of Social Sciences that the use of ChatGPT and AI tools was not allowed in the 'development or generation' of their essay proposal and long essay, according to pictures of the slide that were published online. One student's appeal was being processed before a review panel that would include AI experts, while the other two scored zero for the assignment, local media reported. The students used online tools to organise their citations. The two who have been punished used ChatGPT in their research but said they did not use it to write their essays, according to local media outlet CNA. Fong Wei Li, a lawyer at Forward Legal who specialises in internet and social media law, told This Week in Asia that the saga showed the gaps in processes among universities in dealing with such disputes between teachers and students. 'Most universities acknowledge that Gen AI is part of our lives, but what universities don't go further in doing is consistent framework about processes for grievances; if a faculty accuses a student of using Gen AI and the student disputes it,' Fong said. 'There has not been a critical mass for these kinds of disputes, but do we want to wait for something to happen like it did at NTU before there is a process if a student disputes?'
