Students accuse top Australian university lecturer of using AI to grade papers

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Business School is facing fierce criticism after a Master of Applied Finance student posted evidence on social media platform X.

"It was a pleasure to have AI mark my master's thesis at UNSW, where I pay $5,000 every six weeks for the privilege," the PhD student wrote.

The student's post then went viral on social media. The incident sparked a wave of backlash from the student community about the "devaluation" of university degrees.

Screenshot of a UNSW PhD student's essay comment allegedly generated by AI. (Photo: X/Churgersasx)

A screenshot shows the "instructor feedback" section on the TurnItIn software platform clearly stating: "ChatGPT says: The paper demonstrates a deep understanding of the Australian payments and fraud prevention landscape ," along with a score of 88/100.

The post immediately sparked a debate about the value of a university education . Many online comments called the move “shameful,” “illegal,” and a devastating loss of the school’s integrity.

“You’re paying for real human expertise, not some robot,” one netizen commented. Others agreed that this “will definitely cheapen the university degree and make future employers skeptical about the abilities of new graduates.”

A former UNSW student also expressed his anger: "I paid 40,000 AUD for a master's degree there. My blood would boil if I saw this." This person also pointed out the irony that "students are not allowed to use AI to write essays, but lecturers are allowed to use AI to grade them."

A UNSW representative confirmed the school was “aware of the incident” and would be handling it “in accordance with internal policies and regulations.” The representative also said the school stressed that students and lecturers “should not be overly reliant on technology,” and that “independent thinking and knowledge” would always be essential.

According to UNSW's lecturer guidelines, "in principle, assessors are not allowed to use unapproved AI platforms... (such as ChatGPT) to grade (or) provide feedback." However, lecturers are allowed to use Microsoft Copilot, an application similar to ChatGPT, for this purpose.

The scandal comes on the heels of UNSW, which is ranked 20th in the QS World University Rankings, making a big push to embrace AI. Just last month, the institution signed a major business deal with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.

This is the largest deal in the Australian education sector with the US-based tech giant, providing 10,000 staff with access to the advanced capabilities of the ChatGPT Edu platform.

Will Thorpe, an arts student at the University of Sydney, called the practice of lecturers leaving marking tasks to chatbots "shocking" and "insulting to students and academic colleagues".

While acknowledging that lecturers are not paid fairly for the time they spend grading papers, the student said "that is not a reason to break the social contract" between lecturers and students that each will make an honest effort for the other.

Viet Anh

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/sinh-vien-cao-buoc-giang-vien-dai-hoc-hang-dau-australia-dung-ai-cham-bai-ar983951.html