Academic integrity breaches attributed to generative AI rises at TRU
More AI fabrication at TRU
Photo: Castanet
File – A banner outside the Ken Lepin Science and Health Sciences building on Thompson Rivers University’s campus.
An increase in cases of student work being fabricated at Thompson Rivers University is being attributed to the rise of generative AI.
According to a report to TRU’s senate from the Academic Integrity Committee, there were 557 academic integrity cases adjudicated in the 2024-25 academic year, about on par with the 572 cases in 2023-24. That’s an uptick from the 340 cases the year prior, which followed a large spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While plagiarism has previously accounted for several hundreds of those cases, in the past three years plagiarism has dropped to only 20 in 2024-25
Over the same period, fabrication cases rose from less than a dozen up to 104 in 2024-25. Fabrication cases hit a high in 2023-24 with 206 cases.
The report said the increase in fabrications cases in the past two years “signals the increasing impact of generative AI within education.”
It notes the committee and the Centre for Academic Integrity will need to prioritize educational work to support faculty, including clear learning outcomes, expectations and assessment design, and education is needed for students on interpreting boundaries for AI tools.
“Due to the rise of generative AI, fabrication cases continue to represent the second most common type of departure,” the report reads.
“Due to increased awareness of this issue and improved education on academic integrity by instructors, the number of fabrication cases has decreased by 50 per cent from the 2023-24 academic year.”
The report also notes the proportion of cases in open learning classes has “increased significantly” compared to on-campus courses, and work is needed to liaise with and train online faculty, and stronger considerations of courses and assessment design.
TRU hasn’t crafted a specific policy to address AI use but it has approved changes to its academic integrity policy. Use of text generative technologies, like Chat GPT, is categorized as fabrication under that policy.
Speaking with Castanet, TRU president Dr. Airini said the increase in academic integrity cases is a sign to her that TRU’s policies are keeping up with AI use.
“It’s actually showing that the academic integrity policy is working because we’re actually seeing an increase being caught and therefore those potential acts of cheating, fabrication being addressed,” she said.
Airini said all students have access to courses on AI use and can receive advice from professors on specific course expectations as well. The report states a number of training and information sessions have been held across the university and various departments are supporting education and prevention strategies.
She said an initiative called TRU HorAIzon is also moving forward, which includes information on AI learning programs for students and faculty. That’s being spearheaded by Andrea Li, the university’s special advisor to the president on AI.
“That gives us a safe start to our work in AI, it gives us a focus on applied, responsible AI, and it also sets us up for continuous improvement in this area,” Airini said.
“One of the things that we’ve realized early on as a university is that we need to be ready and we need to be leading when it comes to applied responsible AI.”
There were over 400 open learning cases and about 150 on-campus cases in the last two years. Cheating cases were the most common type of breach in the 2024-25 academic year, with nearly 300 cases.
The report states that a “rational, holistic approach” is needed to tackle academic integrity challenges, by ensuring the TRU community is educated about academic integrity mattes, cases are treated in a fair, consistent and timely manner, committee decisions are rehabilitative rather than retributive and the challenges of AI are addressed.
Another report from the committee is expected next October with data from the 2025-26 academic year.
