Update on Turnitin provision at the University

Dear students,  

You may be aware that the software provider Turnitin, used by the University for plagiarism detection through text matching, had planned to launch an updated End User Licence Agreement (EULA) on Tuesday 14 July. The update included new terms relating to the processing of student submissions using AI tools, which raised important questions across the UK higher education sector around data privacy and institutional contracts. 

Following a coordinated intervention from universities and sector bodies, Turnitin confirmed that it would pause the rollout of the new EULA for 12 months. In the meantime, we would like to reassure students that you can continue to use Turnitin as normal through Canvas assignment submissions. 

In a statement last week Turnitin said:

Turnitin has confirmed that no student or staff data has been used to develop any generative artificial intelligence (AI) models or large language models (LLM), and that they have no plans to use student essays in this way.  In response to concerns raised by UK universities and colleges, Turnitin postponed the issue of a new End-User Licence Agreement (EULA) until September 2027. Turnitin have also committed to redrafting the EULA and will work in partnership with UCISA who represent educational institutions across the UK to address any concerns and clarify key questions.

In the coming months the University will assess any proposed technical and contractual implications alongside our commitment to protecting student and staff data.   In parallel, as part of standard practice, the University continues to explore the market for suitably available software solutions for academic integrity checking. This work is being carried out alongside an academic-led review of the academic integrity software functionality required to meet the University’s policies and regulations. 

We understand that news stories on this subject will have raised concerns with students, which we share, and we have acted promptly to ensure that students and staff are not affected, and we will keep you updated with any further developments.

Thank you.