Low reported severity Media Coverage

Australian Catholic University: ABC reports students wrongly accused of AI cheating, one case resting on a lone AI-detection report

The ABC reported on 9 October 2025 that Australian Catholic University (ACU) registered nearly 6,000 cases of alleged academic misconduct across its nine campuses in 2024, according to internal documents, and that about 90 per cent of the referrals related to AI use. The ABC reports that the university's case against a final-year paramedic student hinged on a single AI-generated report that, the student said, marked 84 per cent of an essay as AI-written; the student produced dozens of pages of evidence and the ABC describes the student as wrongly accused. Students the ABC spoke to said they were notified at the end of semester, had little time to respond and waited months to be cleared, and the ABC saw emails asking students for handwritten notes and internet search histories. A final-year nursing student was cleared after six months, during which her transcript read 'results withheld'; she believes this cost her a graduate position, and the report does not say what evidence prompted her referral. The ABC says internal documents show ACU knew of problems with the detector for more than a year before abandoning the Turnitin tool in March. ACU's deputy vice-chancellor called the figures substantially overstated, said cases resting solely on Turnitin's AI detection were dismissed immediately, acknowledged investigations were not always timely and said the university regretted the impact on some students.

AI system: Turnitin AI-text detector; Turnitin
Occurred: 2024
Reported: 9 October 2025
Event location: Australia

What the AI did: Made a claim about the person
Reported harm: Educational HarmPsychological Distress

Whose AI use: An institution’s AI use
Setting: Education

Evidence: AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account; 8 claims: 1 disputed, 7 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed: At least 1 person

AI system as recorded: Turnitin's AI-writing detection, used by Australian Catholic University in academic-integrity referrals until the university abandoned it

What Happened

The referrals. 'ACU registered nearly 6,000 cases of alleged academic misconduct across its nine campuses in 2024, according to internal documents seen by the ABC.' 'About 90 per cent of those referrals related to AI use.' ACU's deputy vice-chancellor Tania Broadley told the ABC the figures were 'substantially overstated', said 'Around one-quarter of all referrals were dismissed following investigation, and any case where Turnitin's AI detection tool was the sole evidence was dismissed immediately', and would not say how many students were wrongly accused.

The detector report. A final-year paramedic student, not identified by the ABC, said: 'It's AI detecting AI and almost my entire essay was lit up in blue — 84 per cent of it supposedly written by AI'. The ABC writes that 'the university's case hinged on a single AI-generated report that highlighted problematic text' while the student produced dozens of pages of evidence, and that 'email chains and documentation obtained by the ABC indicate ACU regularly relied on the report alone.' When the student asked for further evidence, the university sent a copy of the original assessment, 'identical to the AI report, minus the highlighting.' The student said: 'They don't have a search warrant to request your search history, but when [you're facing] the cost of having to repeat a unit, you just do what they want.'

The process. Students said they were notified at the end of semester, given little time to respond, and waited months for the university to conclude they had done nothing wrong. The ABC saw emails requesting handwritten and typed notes and internet search histories; ACU says this is no longer its practice.

A nursing student. A final-year nursing student received an 'Academic Integrity Concern' email accusing her of using AI to cheat on an assignment while she was applying for graduate jobs. ACU cleared her after six months; meanwhile her transcript was marked 'results withheld', which she believes was part of the reason she was not offered a graduate position. The report does not say whether a detector flagged her work.

The tool. Turnitin added an AI detector in 2023 and cautions that its reports may be inaccurate and should not be the sole basis for adverse action. The ABC reports that internal ACU documents show the university knew of problems with the detector for more than a year before abandoning the Turnitin tool in March after finding it ineffective.

Limits. One ABC investigation, read in full, plus an ABC follow-up of 20 October 2025 that restates the ACU findings. The students' accounts are their own; the internal documents were not inspected for this record. A Herald Sun report of 1 October 2026 on further ACU student complaints could not be read (HTTP 403, no archive capture).

Reported harm

Students referred for alleged AI-related misconduct, one on the strength of a single AI-detection report marking 84 per cent of an essay as AI-written, described months of investigation, demands for notes and search histories and fear of repeating units before being cleared (ABC report based on student accounts, internal documents and emails it saw).

Outcome

Resolved

ACU abandoned the Turnitin AI-detection tool in March (ABC, 9 October 2025), and its deputy vice-chancellor said significant improvements had been made to the timeliness of investigations and that the university regretted the impact on some students. The students the ABC spoke to were cleared after waiting months. No legal proceeding is reported.

What remains unknown

How many students were flagged by the detector and later cleared; ACU would not say.
The dates of the individual referrals and the year of the March abandonment, which the report gives without a year.
Whether the nursing student's referral involved the detector.
What the Herald Sun's 1 October 2026 report adds about later ACU cases; it could not be read.
Which tool produced the paramedic student's report; the ABC does not name it and places it in its account of Turnitin's AI reports and ACU's use of Turnitin's detector.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The ABC reports that the case against a final-year paramedic student hinged on a single AI-generated detection report marking 84 per cent of an essay as AI-written, that ACU regularly relied on the report alone, and that ACU used Turnitin's AI-detection tool until abandoning it. The detector's output was a claim that the student's own writing was AI-generated, and the student describes the investigation, evidence demands and fear of repeating a unit that followed until clearance.

8 claims: 1 disputed, 7 reported. What the statuses mean

Disputed ACU registered nearly 6,000 cases of alleged academic misconduct across its nine campuses in 2024, about 90 per cent of them relating to AI use, according to internal documents seen by the ABC; ACU's deputy vice-chancellor called the figures substantially overstated.

Causal attribution. The ABC's reading of internal documents; disputed by the university.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'ACU registered nearly 6,000 cases of alleged academic misconduct across its nine campuses in 2024, according to internal documents seen by the ABC.'; 'About 90 per cent of those referrals related to AI use.'
abc.net.au(opens in new tab) contradicts · English
'In a statement, deputy vice-chancellor Tania Broadley told the ABC those figures were "substantially overstated".'

Reported The ABC reports that the university's case against a final-year paramedic student hinged on a single AI-generated report, which the student said marked 84 per cent of the essay as AI-written, while the student produced dozens of pages of evidence; the ABC describes the student as wrongly accused.

Causal attribution. The student's account and the ABC's description; the detector report itself was not inspected.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'While the student produced dozens of pages of evidence, the university's case hinged on a single AI-generated report that highlighted problematic text.'; 'almost my entire essay was lit up in blue — 84 per cent of it supposedly written by AI'; 'said a final year ACU paramedic student wrongly accused of cheating with AI'

Reported Email chains and documents obtained by the ABC indicate ACU regularly relied on the AI report alone; when the paramedic student asked for more evidence, the university sent a copy of the original assessment matching the AI report without the highlighting.

Causal attribution. The ABC's reading of documents it obtained.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'But email chains and documentation obtained by the ABC indicate ACU regularly relied on the report alone.'; 'When the paramedic student requested additional evidence, they were sent a copy of their original assessment — identical to the AI report, minus the highlighting.'

Reported Students the ABC spoke to said they were notified at the end of semester, given little time to respond and waited months to be cleared; the ABC saw emails asking students for handwritten and typed notes and internet search histories, a practice ACU says it has stopped.

Causal attribution. Student accounts and emails the ABC saw; the university's response.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'Each said they were notified at the end of the semester, given little time to respond and had to wait months for the university to conclude they had done nothing wrong.'; 'The ABC has seen emails from ACU academic integrity officers requesting students provide handwritten and typed notes and internet search histories to rule out AI use.'; 'Professor Broadley said this was no longer part of the university's practice.'

Reported The paramedic student said the university had no search warrant to request a search history, but that when facing the cost of having to repeat a unit, 'you just do what they want'.

Causal attribution. The student's account.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'They don't have a search warrant to request your search history, but when [you're facing] the cost of having to repeat a unit, you just do what they want.'

Reported A final-year nursing student was accused by email of using AI to cheat on an assignment and cleared after six months; meanwhile her transcript was marked 'results withheld', which she believes was part of the reason she was not offered a graduate position. The report does not say what evidence prompted her referral.

Causal attribution. Her account; the link between the withheld results and the job outcome is her belief, and no detector is named in her case.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'In it, the university accused her of using artificial intelligence (AI) to cheat on an assignment.'; 'It took six months for ACU to clear'; 'academic transcript was marked "results withheld".'; 'is convinced that incomplete document was part of the reason she was not offered a graduate position.'

Reported Turnitin added an AI detector in 2023 and states that its AI reports may not always be accurate and should not be the sole basis for adverse actions against a student.

Causal attribution. Turnitin's published caution as quoted by the ABC.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'In 2023, Turnitin added an AI detector to its toolkit.'; '"It should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student," the statement reads.'

Reported According to internal ACU documents reported by the ABC, the university knew of problems with the AI detector for more than a year before abandoning the Turnitin tool in March after finding it ineffective; ACU's deputy vice-chancellor said Turnitin-only cases were dismissed immediately, acknowledged investigations were not always timely and said the university regretted the impact on some students.

Causal attribution. The ABC's reading of internal documents and the university's statement.

abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
'According to internal ACU documents, the university was aware of issues with the AI detector tool for more than a year before it scrapped it.'; 'ACU abandoned the Turnitin tool in March after finding it to be ineffective.'; 'any case where Turnitin's AI detection tool was the sole evidence was dismissed immediately.'; '"We regret the impact this had on some students," she said.'
abc.net.au(opens in new tab) context · English
'revelations that the Australian Catholic University accused thousands of students of AI-related academic misconduct, only to conclude months later that many had done nothing wrong.'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

ABC News, 9 October 2025: University wrongly accuses students of using artificial intelligence to cheat(opens in new tab)
s1 · abc.net.au · News report · English · Inspected · 9 October 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
ABC News, 20 October 2025: Over a dozen universities are using AI to catch AI, and getting it wrong(opens in new tab)
s2 · abc.net.au · News report · English · Inspected · 20 October 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English in full from abc.net.au (HTTP 200). The internal ACU documents and emails the ABC describes were not inspected. Applies to s1.

Read in English from abc.net.au (HTTP 200). Same publisher as s1; its ACU sentence restates s1's findings and is not independent of it. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Australia. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

ACU is an Australian university and the ABC describes referrals across its nine campuses; the students' countries of residence are not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-06: Published as a concrete account, from an ABC investigation using student interviews and internal documents, of students at an Australian university facing misconduct cases that rested on an AI-detection report, with the university's own acknowledgement of delays and its abandonment of the detector. Students are not named.

People described

Students at Australian Catholic University referred for alleged AI-related academic misconduct, including a final-year paramedic student and a final-year nursing student, neither named here

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.

One person is counted: the final-year paramedic student whose case, per the ABC, hinged on a single AI-generated detection report. The ABC spoke to several other students issued AI-related infringements but does not number them or say which were detector-flagged; the nursing student's referral is not tied to the detector in the report, so she is not counted. The nearly 6,000 referrals are misconduct cases, not a count of people harmed by the detector, and ACU disputes the figure.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Australian Catholic University: ABC reports students wrongly accused of AI cheating, one case resting on a lone AI-detection report. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-australian-catholic-university-turnitin-ai-detector-misconduct-referrals

BibTeX

@misc{2024_australian_catholic_university_turnitin_ai_detector_misconduct_referrals,
  title = {Australian Catholic University: ABC reports students wrongly accused of AI cheating, one case resting on a lone AI-detection report},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-australian-catholic-university-turnitin-ai-detector-misconduct-referrals}
}

First-person forum account: a student in an AP Research course says their teacher reported that Turnitin's AI checker found their source annotations '100% AI' and said the checker never gives false accusations; the student says they wrote the work themselves and can show document history

In a public post to r/ApplyingToCollege early on 1 October 2026 (UTC), a student taking the Advanced Placement (AP) Research course writes that their teacher told them that day that their source annotations had been found to be '100% ai' by Turnitin. The student says they did not use AI. They say their document history shows them typing over the course of an hour and that some sentences closely follow notes they wrote for an earlier assignment. They also say they had faced no AI accusation in a research course with the same teacher the year before. By the student's account, the teacher said the matter would be discussed later and that Turnitin's AI checker feedback never ends up being a false accusation. The student says the accusation leaves them upset and unsure how to defend themselves. No grade or disciplinary outcome is reported. The account is uncorroborated, and one commenter doubted it.

Medium Turnitin AI-text detector

Adelphi accused Orion Newby of AI plagiarism after a detector flagged his paper; a Nassau County judge ordered the finding expunged

Orion Newby, an Adelphi University first-year student with language and auditory processing disabilities, received a zero in November 2024 on a World Civilizations paper after the professor suspected it was AI-generated and the university relied in part on AI-detection software; he was ordered to attend a plagiarism workshop and his appeal was denied, leaving him one finding from suspension or expulsion. Newby — who had written the paper with 15-20 hours of tutor support through the university's own disability program — said the detectors flagged his citations, and two other detectors scored the paper as human. After the family sued, New York State Supreme Court Judge Randy Sue Marber in Nassau County ruled on 28 January 2026 that Adelphi's finding and its denial of his appeal were 'without valid basis and devoid of reason' and ordered his record expunged. The family spent six figures on legal costs.

Low Unidentified AI-text detector

Student reports receiving a zero after a disputed AI-detector result

In an August 2025 first-person post, a student said they discovered a zero for a summer-course discussion assignment after a checker labelled 85% of the text AI-generated. They denied using AI to write it, reported contacting the professor, and described anger and fear of future accusations. Neither the detector output nor the school’s account was available for verification.

Low Turnitin AI-text detector (reported)

Two Florida Atlantic University students told the student newspaper they received zero grades after their work was flagged as AI-written, one after a professor applied Turnitin; both grades were raised after the students emailed their professors

The University Press, Florida Atlantic University's student newspaper, reported on 29 September 2026 the accounts of two students who say they were penalised over AI-detection flags. A computer science sophomore submitted a paper 'last year' and received a zero after the professor flagged it for AI use after applying it to Turnitin; after the student emailed the professor, the grade was improved. The student says that when they ran the paper through a detector, it said the writing was overly human-sounding. A senior sociology major was accused of using AI on an essay and received a zero with little communication from the professor; after the student emailed to say no AI was used, the professor waived the penalty and gave a 50. The newspaper describes the second student's grade as due to a false AI detection and does not name the tool in that case. No professor's or university account of either case is reported.

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