'We could just ask ChatGPT': students confront lecturers over AI education

Students at the University of Staffordshire have said they feel “robbed of knowledge and enjoyment” after a course they hoped would launch their digital careers turned out to be taught in large part by Al.

- Aisha Down

James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers.

But after a term of Al-generated slides being read at times by an AI voiceover, James said he had lost faith in the programme and the people running it, worrying he had “used up two years” of his life on a course that had been done “in the cheapest way possible”.

"If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we’re being taught by an AI,” said James during a confrontation with his lecturer recorded as a part of the course in October 2024.

James and other students confronted university officials multiple times about the Al materials. But the university appears to still be using AI-generated materials to teach the course. This year, the university uploaded a policy statement to the course website appearing to justify the use of AI, laying out “a framework for academic professionals leveraging Al automation” in scholarly work and teaching.

The university’s public-facing policies limit students’ use of AI, saying students who outsource work to AI or pass off Al-generated work as their own are breaching its integrity policy and may be challenged for academic misconduct.