Students at the University of Staffordshire have said they feel “robbed of knowledge and enjoyment” after a course they hoped would launch their digital careers turned out to be taught in large part by AI.
James and Owen were among 41 students who took a coding module at Staffordshire last year, hoping to change careers through a government-funded apprenticeship programme designed to help them become cybersecurity experts or software engineers.
But after a term of AI-generated slides being read, at times, by an AI voiceover, James said he had lost faith in the programme and the people running it, worrying he had “used up two years” of his life on a course that had been done “in the cheapest way possible”.
“If we handed in stuff that was AI-generated, we would be kicked out of the uni, but we’re being taught by an AI,” said James during a confrontation with his lecturer recorded as a part of the course in October 2024.
James and other students confronted university officials multiple times about the AI materials. But the university appears to still be using AI-generated materials to teach the course. This year, the university uploaded a policy statement to the course website appearing to justify the use of AI, laying out “a framework for academic professionals leveraging AI automation” in scholarly work and teaching.
The university’s public-facing policies limit students’ use of AI, saying students who outsource work to AI or pass off AI-generated work as their own are breaching its integrity policy and may be challenged for academic misconduct.
“I’m midway through my life, my career,” James said. “I don’t feel like I can now just go away and do another career restart. I’m stuck with this course.”
The Staffordshire case comes as more and more universities use AI tools – to teach students, generate course materials and give personalised feedback. A Department of Education policy paper released in August hailed this development, saying generative AI “has the power to transform education”. A survey last year (pdf) of 3,287 higher education teaching staff by the educational technology firm Jisc found that nearly a quarter were using AI tools in their teaching.
For students, AI teaching appears to be less transformative than it is demoralising. In the US, students post negative online reviews about professors who use AI. In the UK, undergraduates have taken to Reddit to complain about their lecturers copying and pasting feedback from ChatGPT or using AI-generated images in courses.
“I understand the pressures on lecturers right now that may force them to use AI, it just feels disheartening,” one student wrote.
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