The university experience has profoundly changed since the proliferation of AI. Students use it to answer exam questions, do their coursework and even write their dissertation – and detection programs are struggling to catch up.
A 2026 survey by the Higher Education Policy Institute, interviewing 1,100 students, found that 95 per cent used an AI tool in their university studies.
Now, as youth unemployment reaches its highest level since 2013, academics and recent graduates worry that students’ AI use leaves them ill-equipped to find and keep a job.
‘AI has affected knowledge of my degree’
A student, who asked not to be named, described how ingrained AI use had become at their university, and how they feared that their reliance on it would affect their future job opportunities.
