More than 2,000 flagged, and some expelled
UCL and Imperial are among four Russell Group universities to have expelled students for AI-related cheating, with more than 2,000 students flagged last year. Expulsion is the most severe academic penalty there is, and it sits on top of a detection system that this year has been shown to misfire on neurodivergent students and second-language writers. Know your department’s process before you are in it. Academic misconduct covers it.
The regulator will not appeal its Sussex defeat
The Office for Students has decided not to appeal the High Court ruling that overturned its £585,000 fine and found errors in law and possible bias. The free speech duties stand; the enforcement approach that produced the fine does not, and the regulator must now rebuild how it investigates.
A black studies master’s closed eight months after it launched
Staff at Birmingham City University say they were blindsided by plans to drop a black studies MA, eight months after it was introduced. Closing a course this quickly raises the question of what happens to applicants holding offers and students part-way through, which universities must set out in their student protection plans.
£150 and a year’s wait after racist abuse
A Cardiff student who was racially abused has been offered £150 in compensation after waiting a year for the university’s process to conclude, and the university declined to say what sanction the two accused students received. Complainants are entitled to be told the outcome of a complaint that concerns them, which is a point worth pressing.