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With exams just around the corner, students from Bournemouth University talk about what academic integrity means to them, how using it means they get better marks, how to avoid committing an academic offence and where to get help when they need it.

Four students at the University of Virginia have been caught cheating using Artificial Intelligence language tools like ChatGPT to complete their essays. When enrolling, all students pledge to follow an honour code and given that this was the first wave of such cheating, the University made this moment work toward the goal of learning. The students confessed to using such systems and agreed to rewrite the assignments themselves.

20 Massey University students allegedly caught using ChatGPT to cheat have claimed amnesty in exchange for their confessions. The teaching team offered an amnesty deadline and those who resubmitted their work would receive a maximum mark of 50%. For those who didn’t, a confirmed breach can result in a mark of zero for the assessment or a failure for the whole course.

According to a survey conducted by Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), most universities in East Africa struggled to uphold the integrity of examinations that were administered online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead investigator at ESSA reports that students used materials prohibited during the examinations or breached university examination policies. Uganda and Kenya had the highest number of universities that struggled, at 31% and 27%, respectively.

A student developed his own artificial intelligence (AI) app to stop cheating using essay-writing bots. After a project on his university course asked him to integrate AI with education, he felt the need to create the software start-up AIED.UK to prevent inequality in academic settings. The student thinks of AIED.UK as a "transitional phase" to prevent cheating whilst universities adapt to new technologies.

According to the head of the Observatory for Higher Education and Scientific Research, there has been an increase in exam cheating by students using mobile phones, lesson notes, or documents prepared for cheating, along with writing on the tables or even on the walls of the exam halls. Some observers instead of writing reports about cheating in exams are rather facilitating it. This can be attributed to a lack of resources and motivation that affects quality teaching along with a culture in which cheating has become normalized.

Questions about cheating are raised over the abnormal growth curve in exam results. 173,000 high school students have been admitted to universities at C+ level and above in 2022 compared to 145 in 2021 in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. This implies that 6,300 students exceed the 167,046 places available in public and private universities in 2021.

An investigation in Tanzania reveals a rising number of bureaus and individuals who make their living by writing dissertations and research reports for postgraduates and undergraduates. This form of academic dishonesty is widespread among postgraduate students, most of whom are employed in the public as well as private sectors.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) sanctioned 13 Secondary Schools in Gombe State over cases of examination malpractice. From 2018 to 2020, seven public secondary schools were found to be involved in exam malpractice. In 2022, the Ministry received a fresh set of six schools that committed the same offence, and they were also de-recognised with a penalty of N500,000 per school payable to WAEC. According to WAEC director, the threat of examination malpractice had a negative impact on students' performance in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations result: with an overall average of 55.6% in 2022 compared to 79.5 per cent in 2021.

The New York City Department of Education has blocked access to ChatGPT on its networks and devices over fears that the AI tool will harm students’ education. Many teachers say software like ChatGPT essentially makes it impossible to test students’ ability to write essays at home. Although tools to detect AI-generated writing already exist, it’s unclear how accurate they will be, or if students can outwit them with simple alterations to AI-generated text.