95% of Students Use AI. Protecting the Degree Is Now a Reputation Job
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Show notes
95% of UK undergraduates now use AI, and the share putting AI-generated text straight into assessed work has quadrupled since 2024. I explain why the credibility of the degree has become a reputation question as much as a teaching one.
- Explain plainly how your assessment tests genuine ability now.
- Bring marketing and employer relations into assessment redesign.
- Present AI fluency as a graduate strength, and talk to employers directly.
Full transcript
Hello, and welcome to Marketing Greats in Higher Education. I'm Jonathan Sabarre, your host, and this is where we explore the ideas shaping how universities are seen, chosen and trusted around the world. Everything I share on this show is my own personal view.
Ninety-five per cent of UK undergraduates now use AI in some form. That's the headline from HEPI and Kortext's latest Student Generative AI Survey, published in March, and it's up from sixty-six per cent in 2024. Ninety-four per cent use it to help with assessed work. For universities, that turns the value of the degree into a reputation question, and it's one we can't leave to the quality committees!
Most of that use is explaining concepts and summarising reading, which is exactly what we'd want. But the share of students putting AI-generated text straight into assessed work has risen from three per cent in 2024 to eight per cent in 2025, and twelve per cent this year. That's a fourfold rise in two years, and it should worry anyone responsible for the institution's name.
The sector is responding. Nearly two-thirds of students say assessment has changed significantly because of AI, and thirty-eight per cent now have AI tools provided by their university, up from nine per cent two years ago. Enforcement is hardening too. A Guardian investigation last year found almost seven thousand proven cases of AI cheating at UK universities in 2023 to 24, more than three times the rate of the year before.
So why does that matter to marketing? A degree is a promise. To an employer, the classification on a certificate says that someone was tested and met a standard. If employers start to doubt whether the graduate in front of them wrote their own dissertation, that doubt doesn't stay with the student. It attaches to the name of the university. Most of this conversation has happened inside academic quality committees, which is right, but it's left out the people who write the institution's public promises. Marketing teams are still writing employability claims without knowing how assessment has changed underneath them, and employers are rarely told at all.
So what would I ask every university leadership team to do? First, explain how your assessment holds up. Employers, parents and applicants deserve a plain account of how your degrees test genuine ability now, whether that's oral assessment, supervised work or process portfolios. Put it where they'll find it, not in a quality handbook.
Second, bring marketing and employer relations into the room. The group redesigning assessment should include the people who talk to employers. They'll spot the reputational risks early, and they can turn the changes into a story worth telling. Third, give students clarity rather than suspicion. The survey shows students are still unsure what's acceptable, so a short, honest guide, consistent across departments, protects them and the university.
Half of students now think their institution should provide AI tools, and that seems a reasonable expectation to me. Fourth, present AI fluency as a graduate strength. Employers want graduates who can use these tools well and judge their output critically. Show how your courses build that, and AI becomes evidence of capability rather than a risk you're managing quietly.
And fifth, talk to employers directly. Ask your main graduate recruiters what worries them about AI and graduate quality, and tell them what you've changed. It's the kind of conversation that builds trust long before a problem becomes a headline. Every university is changing its assessment, yet very few are talking about it.
The first institutions to make the integrity of their degrees visible will own a simple and powerful position with employers: you can trust our graduates. So find out this term how your assessment has changed, sit down with the people redesigning it, and make sure your public promises match what's really happening. The credibility of the degree is now a reputation job, and it's yours as much as anyone's!
Thank you for spending this time with me. If this episode sparked something for you, hit subscribe, so you never miss the next one. And our full season, with guests from leading universities around the world, is coming very soon. Head to Jonathan Sabarre dot com and sign up, so you're the first to know when it launches. Until next time, keep building something great.