UK Students Warn Turnitin Licence Change Could Let AI Train on Their Coursework

Students at several UK universities have raised alarm about proposed licence changes to Turnitin, the plagiarism-detection software widely used to submit and check coursework. Concerns focus on whether student submissions could be incorporated into datasets used to train artificial intelligence systems.

What Students and Unions Say

York Students' Union said planned revisions to Turnitin's institutional agreements risked allowing student work to be absorbed into AI training datasets. Sam Dickinson, Union Affairs Officer at the University of York, said students worry their intellectual property could be used for purposes beyond assessment and learning.

"Students' intellectual property is something that should belong to them," Dickinson said. "If submission is mandatory to receive a mark, you cannot meaningfully consent to your work being used to train AI."

Turnitin's Response

Turnitin, based in California, told customers it updated institutional agreements as it expanded in-product AI functionality and to help institutions navigate their own AI use. The company said it will not implement licence updates any earlier than 1 September 2027 to allow time for discussion with customers.

York SU officer Sam Dickinson said students would not be able to give consent for their work to be used [BBC/Seb Cheer]

Turnitin also stated: "We do not use customer or student work to train the AI assistant within Turnitin Clarity. We may use anonymized student submissions to improve our detection and assessment tools."

Universities React

The University of York said it has contacted Turnitin and understands that "no changes will be made to our terms and conditions, and our students' data will not be used to train their AI services." York added it takes intellectual property and data privacy seriously and will review any future provider changes in consultation with the Students' Union.

The University of Southampton has moved more quickly: it announced it is phasing out Turnitin and will not renew its contract after the 2026-27 academic year, citing a duty to protect students' data and intellectual property. Southampton said Turnitin had not fully clarified what future licence changes might require.

The University of East Anglia was likely to move away from using Turnitin, the Students' Union education officer said [Shaun Whitmore/BBC]

Other student unions and student officers — including those at Reading, the University of East Anglia, Lancaster and St Andrews — have said they are pursuing clarity from their universities and pushing for stronger protections, with some institutions and unions inclined to explore alternatives to Turnitin.

Context And Why It Matters

According to Uni Compare, around 98% of UK universities use Turnitin products, so any change to licence terms could affect large numbers of students. The dispute highlights tensions between universities’ efforts to uphold academic integrity and students’ concerns about ownership of their work, meaningful consent when submission is compulsory, and the broader impact of AI on jobs and academic practice.

Key Quotes

Turnitin: "To give us time to discuss any changes with customers, we are not updating it any earlier than September 1, 2027."

York SU: "If you're at university and writing about things you care about, you should own that work and decide whether it's used to train AI services."

The conversation is ongoing: students, unions and universities continue to press for transparent policies that protect student data and clarify how (and whether) submissions may be used to improve detection tools or AI products.