41% of Durham students have used Generative-AI for summatives
By Anoushka Mundey and Jarrad Hart
According to confidential polling by Palatinate, 41% of Durham students admitted to using Generative-AI (GAI) for summative work, with 61% having used it for university work generally. 83% of those who have used GAI have never cited it.
83% of respondents that had used GAI for their summative work reported they use it for planning; 67% use it for suggesting sources or content; 50% reported using GAI to rewrite or critique their work; and only 17% stated that they use GAI to generate or answer some sections of summative assignments. Respondents also reported using GAI to summarise readings and estimate the grade.
Regarding more general university work, polling by Palatinate has shown that 16% stating that they have used it extensively, and 45% used it occasionally. Just 33% of respondents have not used GAI for university work, while 6% are unfamiliar with GAI.
Durham University’s Learning and Teaching handbook states that “inappropriate” student use of GAI may lead to academic misconduct. Each department must then outline how students may use GAI.
In 2023, Durham opted out of Turnitin’s AI checker; however, a University spokesperson told Palatinate “Any student work may be uploaded to a plagiarism detection system to check for possible academic offences. We frequently review our policies to take account of new developments. We currently have no plans to use Turnitin’s AI detection tool.”
In 2023/4, there were less than five confirmed cases of plagiarism.
61% of students have used GAI for University work
So, how do departments differ on GAI policy? An English Studies Department handbook, dated January 2025, said three different policies on GAI had been recommended to departments by the University: forbidding their use, allowing their use with acknowledgement required, and allowing their use with no acknowledgement required.
The same document states that the English Studies Department had opted for the second option, but warns that the University’s plagiarism rules still apply. It acknowledges that “the boundaries…between what is inappropriate [use of GAI] and what is appropriate can be difficult to judge.”
Students at the School of Government and International Affairs (SGIA) are allowed to use GAI to write or paraphrase sections of text, and help structure an essay; however, this must be cited with screenshots of prompts and answers in the appendix.
This is a similar policy to the Business School, the Biosciences Department, and the Department of Sociology. All departments outline that the policy may change per assignment.
Three different policies on GAI has been recommended to departments by the university
Yet, whilst departments like SGIA allow students to use GAI to develop and aid with essay structure, departments like Philosophy have banned this, along with generating any text altogether.
In an academic malpractice presentation dated January 2025, Durham Law School stated that the “Use of generative AI is not prohibited but is strongly discouraged”, suggesting that GAI-produced work is likely to receive a low mark.
In the University Learning and Teaching Handbook, under Section 6.2.4.1: Academic Misconduct: Plagiarism, the University states that “All departments should provide students with clear guidance regarding acceptable and unacceptable use of generative AI software in assessments.”
Image: Kaitlyn Baker via Unsplash
