England's university regulator tells schools to bring back in-person exams

England's university regulator says AI has made it close to impossible to grade student coursework fairly. It wants schools to bring back traditional exams and in-person presentations. The Office for Students (OfS) also warns it could sanction universities that fail to build reliable ways to assess students without AI, according to the Guardian.

What the regulator found

A joint survey by the OfS and Advance HE covered more than 300 respondents at 127 universities and colleges. It found students use AI heavily for essays and dissertations, often without being caught, and get similar grades to students who work without it. Some had ChatGPT write whole papers and could not recall basic content afterward. Instructors describe large batches of near-identical submissions with the same sources and style.

Josh Fleming, the OfS strategy director, called this a "generational risk" to the credibility of degrees. He demanded "far greater use of AI-free assessment."

What happens next

Many universities are already moving toward oral exams, assessments that look at how work is produced, or tasks where students critically revise AI-generated text. Britain's Department for Education expects universities "to take this issue seriously." It wants the regulatory framework to be "explicit, strong and durable on the use of AI."

The material does not say what the sanctions would be or when schools must act. For employers and parents, the practical point is that a degree may soon rest more on live exams and talking through work than on essays.