Last week, the US software company Turnitin revealed 53.6% of Australian tertiary education submissions run through its system used some form of AI in the period from October 2025-April 2026. The company, whose plagiarism-detection technology is widely used in universities, also reported 10% of these submissions contained more than 80% AI-written content.

Meanwhile, separate data from AI safety company Anthropic showed Australia now leads in per capita use of its Claude chatbot. Coursework makes up a significant share of that use.

Our 2026 analysis found while most Australian universities have introduced generative AI policies, significant gaps remain in translating these into practice.

So what can unis do to keep up?

How AI is used matters

The headline figure is striking, but it should be interpreted with care. AI detection tools estimate the likelihood that assisted writing is present, not whether a student breached university rules. A high AI score could reflect disclosed use rather than academic misconduct.

The real concern is not whether AI is present in students’ work, but how........

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