Report suggests students being treated unfairly in academic misconduct cases due to lack of clarity on AI
Photo by Fernanda Solorza.
Angus Shaw, the current Ombudsperson — an impartial and independent office that supports both students and faculty — at UVic, released his annual report earlier this year, citing significant issues with the way academic misconduct allegations are handled at the university.
In his report, Shaw notes a 23 per cent increase in students coming to his office with academic integrity cases between 2023 and 2024. According to the report “many, if not most of these cases” involved artificial intelligence (AI). Shaw said the frequency of AI related academic integrity violations has made it hard for decision-makers and the university to keep up.
Shaw said he has noticed a trend — because of the prevalence of AI, some decision-makers engage in unfair practices when accusing students of violating principles of academic integrity. In his report, Shaw outlined six ways in which he observed this happening at UVic.
Many decision-makers, he found, engaged in what he called “flipping the burden” — rather than proving that the student had violated academic integrity, decision-makers instead would ask students to prove their innocence.
He also found decision-makers would often engage unfairly with students’ stories — sometimes not giving accused students access to evidence, adequate time to respond, or informing them of their rights. These decision-makers would also often hide their rationale for academic integrity violations, even though students have a right to know.
The report suggests some decision-makers may work backwards when they believe a student used AI, and seek out evidence that supports their conclusions — potentially disregarding counter-evidence. In some cases, decision-makers also had a tendency to give too much weight to trends in cheating, rather than treating the student in question as an individual, and would unfairly apply broader patterns to individual cases.
The report also claims the university’s rules surrounding generative AI are unclear, resulting in students being unaware of what is and isn’t allowed. Policies are often both broad and vague, Shaw said, which can result in accusations for actions that are not necessarily covered by any particular policy or course syllabus.
Diana Varela, Associate Dean, Academic Advising at UVic, said that while handling appeals, she had seen cases where chairs were unfair or biased, particularly when handling an influx of violations. However, she has also observed less appeals recently for academic integrity violations, and hasn’t seen one in “months.”
Shaw’s report also says AI is potentially stressing UVic’s academic misconduct processes to its limits.
“I think [the integrity policy] is stretching people’s comfort,” Varela said.
“We have received questions from faculty chairs asking, ‘How [they] fit the use of AI in the policy’” Varela said, noting some faculty members have uncertainties with how AI should be handled under UVic’s current policies.
Shaw, as an impartial voice, provides assistance not just to students, but department chairs and faculty members as well. Shaw said he likes to have discussions with new chairs — as it is a rotating position, where some holders may not always have a lot of experience — to discuss common pitfalls with academic integrity, and how to avoid them.
The Ombudsperson’s website also has templates for faculty to help them with drafting academic misconduct notification and decision letters.
According to Shaw’s report, the six examples of common unfair practices were drawn from real student circumstances. “Not only did these students face an allegation, they also faced a process that was unpredictable, unfair, or in some cases, unethical. Their health, reputations, education, and futures were on the line. This caused, from my observation, much more stress than was warranted and irrevocable damage to the students’ relationships with UVic,“ Shaw said in his report.
Students who have concerns with academic misconduct allegations, and faculty members who have concerns with addressing suspected cases of misconduct can find the Ombudperson’s report, and letter templates, here.
