Cambridge and Newcastle among universities to change deals with Turnitin over concerns on AI

Several UK universities, including Cambridge and Newcastle, are altering or axing their deals with Turnitin due to concerns about AI.

Almost all UK universities use the software Turnitin to deal with students’ assignments. Once a student has completed their work, they turn it in (get it?) and Turnitin checks the writing against a database in order to estimate the likelihood that parts have been copied or plagiarised. 

Turnitin had planned on changing the End-User-Licence Agreement (EULA). Under these proposed terms, students’ work and academic staff’s feedback could be used to develop AI software. Many students fretted about this. Several Student Unions – including those at the University of East Anglia (UEA), SOAS University of London, the University of St Andrews and the University of York – raised concerns to their universities. The Lancaster Tab‘s poll found 95 per cent would not be happy with Turnitin using their uni work to train its AI services.

Turnitin backtracked, and announced on 29th September it was “redrafting” the proposed EULA, and it wouldn’t introduce a new EULA until 2027. The statement 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 they they have no plans to use student essays in this way.”

Turnitin’s new “Trust Centre” also details what AI software it does use.

Several UK universities have announced they are either changing their contracts with Turnitin, or scrapping the software altogether.

Aberystwyth University

After Turnitin proposed the new licence agreement, Aberystwyth University’s Digital Education Team said: “We were unhappy with how Turnitin planned to introduce this update, without warning, and over the security of student work and staff feedback.” The university is contracted with Turnitin until July 207, but the Digital Education Team are “happy to work with anyone who would like to switch to using [Blackboard Assignment]”.

University of Cambridge

A University of Cambridge student at work

A spokesperson for the Cambridge Students’ Union told Varsity: “In July 2026, the University of Cambridge became the first university to refuse to sign Turnitin’s new contract, which contained changes to the Terms of Use indicating that student work would be used to train AI models.”

So, Cambridge is carrying on with the old Terms of Use until July 2027, and “operating under a modified arrangement with Turnitin”. The university is apparently looking into other software.

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Lancaster University

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Louise Dixon, said: “Lancaster is working with the Students’ Union and the professional body for digital practitioners in education, UCISA, to address concerns with Turnitin. We may review the use of Turnitin should its terms change in the future.”

Newcastle University

The University Education Committee decided do “begin a phased withdrawal” of Turnitin, and to not renew the contract beyond the 2026/2027 academic year. Among Newcastle‘s reasons were “concerns arising from changes to Turnitin’s End-User Licence Agreement, particularly around the potential use of colleague and student data for AI purposes from next year”.

University of Southampton

Stressed-looking Southampton students in the Hartley Library

This Russell Group university announced back in August that it would get rid of Turnitin. The University of Southampton‘s website explained: “While we understand Turnitin has postponed changes that would have allowed it to use student submissions to train AI services, it has confirmed it still intends to revisit implementing these updates next year.

“As a result, we have decided not to renew our contract beyond the end of the 2026/27 academic year and will begin phasing out the use of this service immediately.”

University of Westminster

This is the last semester when the University of Westminster will use Turnitin. In February 2027, students will start submitting their work through Blackboard Assignment instead.

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