AI Cheating, Campus Cuts, and the Case for Urgent Reform

Curated AI news for week 25 in 2025.

Good morning, AI educators.
A new UK survey reveals widespread AI cheating among university students, with most going undetected and institutional responses lagging behind. Meanwhile, sector leaders argue that embracing AI is now essential for universities to survive mounting financial pressures.

In this week's news:

• 1 in 8 UK university students admit to AI cheating

• Universities told to adopt AI or face collapse

• DfE guidance downplays AI risks, say critics

• AI can reduce stress, if teachers get tools and training

• MIT study shows ChatGPT lowers brain engagement

Thousands of UK university students caught cheating using AI

A new survey reveals that over one in eight university students in the UK admitted to using AI tools like ChatGPT to cheat in assessments.

Details:

• The survey was conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI).

• 12% of students admitted to submitting AI-generated material as their own.

• 53% said they had used generative AI tools in some form for university work.

• Only 5% of students said they were caught or penalised.

• The findings raise concerns over institutional preparedness and inconsistent guidance on AI use.

Why it matters:
This highlights a serious and growing problem for universities: students are already widely using AI, often outside academic integrity policies. Most institutions lack clear frameworks or effective detection tools, creating a gap between policy and practice. As generative AI tools become more advanced and accessible, universities will need to rethink assessment design and student guidance to maintain fairness and academic standards.

The Guardian, June 15, 2025. Link

To survive the funding crisis, UK universities must embrace AI

UK universities are being urged to adopt AI across teaching, research, and admin functions to offset falling income and rising costs.

Details:

• The article argues that traditional funding models are failing, with per-student income declining in real terms.

• AI is presented as a cost-saving tool that can help automate marking, streamline admin, and personalise student support.

• Universities are encouraged to act fast to build internal AI capacity or risk falling behind global competitors.

• The author warns against complacency, suggesting that hesitation will deepen the financial crisis.

• Strategic partnerships and upskilling staff are key steps recommended to manage the transition effectively.

Why it matters:
Universities face serious financial pressure, and AI offers a practical path to operational efficiency and innovation. However, successful adoption depends on leadership, training, and ethical clarity—not just tech investment. Institutions that move too slowly may be forced into painful cuts, while early adopters could reshape the higher education sector’s future.

Times Higher Education, June 17, 2025. Link

AI education news in brief

• The AI hallucination: tech will add problems, not solve them.

  This article argues that AI will increase teacher workload and that government interest in AI is driven by a desire for cost-cutting rather than genuine workload reduction. June 19, 2025. FE Week

• AI Can Save Teachers Time and Stress. Here's How (Opinion)

  This opinion piece suggests that AI tools can help teachers save time on tasks like research, creating content, and communicating with parents, allowing them to focus more on teaching. June 18, 2025. Education Week

• The DfE's new materials dangerously underplay AI's risks

  This article criticizes the Department for Education's new AI guidance for schools, arguing it shifts too much responsibility for AI risks onto educators and downplays potential harms. June 17, 2025. Schools Week

• AI In Education: Why Teachers Need Tools, Time, And Training
  Teachers require proper tools, time, and training to effectively integrate AI into education, ensuring it enhances learning rather than complicating it.
  June 19, 2025. Forbes

• BCOT wins national teaching award for use of AI in the classroom
  Basingstoke College of Technology received a national award for its innovative use of AI to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.
  June 15, 2025. FE News

• How Pearson is learning about educational re-invention, the potential of AI, and tackling the $1.1 trillion US skills gap
  Pearson is using AI to reinvent education, addressing the US skills gap by enhancing personalized learning and workforce training.
  June 15, 2025. Diginomica

• Paul Tudor Jones: We're in an AI 'Twilight Zone' where machines will take your job
  Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones warns that AI's rapid advancement could disrupt education and employment, urging adaptation to avoid job losses.
  June 19, 2025. Business Insider

AI studies released this week

• ChatGPT's Impact On Our Brains According to an MIT Study An MIT study found that ChatGPT users exhibited lower brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels compared to those not using the AI. June 19, 2025. Time Magazine

• Robots That Feel Heat, Pain, and Pressure? This New “Skin” Makes It Possible Researchers have created a revolutionary robotic skin that integrates sensors to enable machines to have human-like touch capabilities. June 17, 2025. ScienceDaily

• The Darwin Gödel Machine: AI That Improves Itself by Rewriting Its Own Code Sakana AI has created a coding agent that can read, modify, and test its own codebase to improve its performance on coding tasks. June 13, 2025. Radical Data Science

• AI Reveals Milky Way's Black Hole Spins Near Top Speed A study used AI and over 12 million simulations to discover that the Milky Way's central black hole is spinning at nearly maximum speed, redefining theories about black hole behavior. June 15, 2025. ScienceDaily

• AI That Writes Climate-Friendly Cement Recipes in Seconds AI researchers in Switzerland have developed a system that simulates thousands of ingredient combinations to dramatically cut cement’s carbon footprint by redesigning its recipe. June 19, 2025. ScienceDaily

In other AI news

• AI-generated job applications are overwhelming employers, with LinkedIn seeing a 45% surge in submissions driven by generative AI tools. NYTimes

• The BBC is threatening legal action against an AI firm for allegedly reproducing its content verbatim without permission. BBC

• AI-generated disinformation videos about the Israel-Iran conflict have amassed over 100 million views, spreading fake clips of military actions. BBC

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warned staff that AI will reduce the corporate workforce, urging them to embrace the technology. BBC

• OpenAI’s advanced reasoning model is smarter but hallucinates more frequently, raising concerns about AI reliability. LiveScience

• Australian workers face job market upheaval as AI becomes a cheaper alternative, particularly impacting entry-level white-collar roles. ABCNews

• News Corp’s use of AI for illustrations and producing 3,000 localized articles weekly has sparked concerns among journalists. TheGuardian

• Blue-collar workers are adopting AI for back-office tasks like marketing and scheduling, though it can’t replace hands-on trade work. Kiplinger

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