BEIJING – Many Chinese universities are restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in graduate thesis writing as the new technology stirs debate over the integrity of academic research.
Fuzhou University in Fujian province has introduced an examination system that detects AI-generated content, which will be used to review undergraduate theses and the results will be taken into account in grading.
Tianjin University of Technology said that if AI-generated content in undergraduate papers exceeds 40 percent, the university will warn students and ask them to make corrections.
Professor Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Institute, said Chinese higher education institutions do not ban students from using AI to write their papers, but they do prohibit them from using AI to ghostwrite papers.
“University students can use AI while researching and writing, but they should not rely too heavily on it or simply copy and paste AI-generated text into their essays,” Professor Xiong said.
According to a survey conducted by China Youth Daily in November 2023, more than 80% of college students use AI tools to help with assignments.
While rational and creative use of AI can improve the quality of students' research projects and thesis writing, the overall argument of the thesis should be the result of the student's independent research, Xiong said.
“AI-generated texts should not be copied verbatim, but used as reference material and compared with students' own thinking,” he said.
Beijing's Communication University of China has issued a notice on strengthening regulations on the use of AI in graduation theses in 2024, and many departments are asking students to disclose whether they have used generated AI. According to the notice, if the tool is used during thesis writing, details such as the exact model, version, and generation process of AI-related content must be clearly stated to ensure accuracy and respect the intellectual property rights of other authors.
A fourth-year student at Communication University of China said that he and most of his classmates used ChatGPT to write their 2024 senior thesis, but only for some sections.
“I mainly used the tool for the literature review part. My thesis topic is actually related to algorithms, so I asked ChatGPT to help me summarize related papers,” said the student, who gave only his surname, Peng.
Peng said he didn't just copy the AI tool's answers verbatim, but instead used his own understanding to polish the results until they met the requirements of his thesis. “I wrote the overall structure, main arguments, and interview documents, which make up the bulk of the thesis, all by myself,” Peng said. He entered his thesis into an online system that detects AI-generated content in case his final thesis didn't meet the school's requirements. The results showed that 2.63% of the content was generated by AI tools, far below the limit set by the university, he said.
A new law on degrees, coming into force in January, will require that degrees be refused or revoked if dissertations or work are found to have involved ghostwriting, plagiarism, fabrication or other forms of academic misconduct.
Professor Xiong said it is essential to not only strengthen technical detection but also to strengthen the guidance role to prevent students from submitting ghostwritten papers. University thesis supervisors need to guide students' research and writing, rather than simply assigning assignments and waiting for students to submit their papers and undergo technical detection. China Daily/Asia News Network
