Is AI The Enemy? How QUB is Reforming Assessments to Keep Up With the Modern World.

By Oisín Cheshire

Universities across the world are scrambling to find ways to deter students from using Artificial Intelligence (AI), with calls for bringing back in-person exams echoing through the corridors. Queen’s University Belfast, however, seems not to want to return to packing students into Whitla hall for their exams like sardines in a can. Instead, they are using this recent surge in AI as a chance to reform assessments to meet the needs of the future.

Amongst the core features of QUB’s Guidance on the use of AI in Assessment 2025-26 [1] is the use of AI detection tools in grading. The use of these tools is simple; they are not recommended. The return in false positives is at an unacceptable high rate. The University recognises this. With AI being integrated in everyday writing tools, proving the difference between ‘AI produced’ and ‘human produced’ is an increasingly hard task to do. Instead of investing in AI surveillance technology, Queens have opted to update its academic offence procedures, while offering transparency and clarity on what you should and should not use AI for.

The more significant update is QUB’s ideas for assessment. The guidance signals a move away from high volumes of traditional coursework. However, it warns against automatically reverting to handwritten, supervised exams as a default alternative. Although the university still believes handwritten exams are appropriate in some contexts and will continue to do so, they also argue handwritten exams are not a comprehensive or future-focused solution. QUB anticipates greater use of programme-level and synoptic assessments that require students to synthesise knowledge across modules. Authentic, workplace-oriented tasks are also expected to grow, sometimes explicitly integrating AI as part of the learning process.

This move has been paired with the university’s advice to staff on the attitude they should take with Students and AI. The university encourages staff to have open discussions with students and where they can and cannot use AI, while suggesting how students can use it to free up time to focus on other elements of their coursework. The university also suggest staff require a ‘show their work’ element in assignments, requesting a potential draft assignment to prove the students work process.

Taking all of this into account, it seems that Queen’s University Belfast view Artificial Intelligence not as a temporary disruption, but as a permanent feature of the professional landscape students will enter after graduation. Therefore, the use of AI should not be prohibited, but should be integrated into a reformed assessment process. After all, a man’s best friend is a dog, but in this day and age, a student’s best friend is ChatGPT.

References

[1] Queen’s University Belfast, (2025). “QUB Guidance on the use of AI in Assessment – 2025-26.” Available at: https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2024/02/QUB-Guidance-on-the-use-of-AI-in-Assessment.pdf [pdf]