In the age of AI, employers need assurance that graduates have genuinely earned their degrees. Assured Assessment™ certifies that universities maintain rigorous, in-person assessment standards.
Since the explosion of generative AI in late 2022, students are producing passing-quality assignments, essays, and even exam answers using tools like ChatGPT. The result: degrees that no longer guarantee competence.
80%
of students estimated by senior academics to be using AI to cheat
Six senior academics in three states, The Australian, Feb 2026
90%+
rate of cheating reported by students themselves in their courses
Student reports, The Australian, Feb 2026
7%
lecture attendance reported in some courses
Dr Jonathan Albright, UWA
800 Million
weekly ChatGPT users, the tool most used by students to cheat
OpenAI, via The Australian, Feb 2026
"University is no longer a test of your intellect. It's a test of how well you can instruct ChatGPT."
"The only way to eliminate AI cheating is to go back to in-person supervised exams, in-class presentations, oral assessments, practical lab assignments and defending of essays."
Assured Assessment is a global certification that gives employers confidence. It certifies that graduates from accredited institutions have completed rigorous, in-person assessments and genuinely earned their qualifications.
At least 70% of graded assessments must be completed under supervised, in-person conditions, without the use of any AI tools. Students must achieve a on this component.
In-person assessments ensure academic integrity through direct human observation, verifying a student’s immediate cognitive ability and practical skills in controlled environments. Examples include:
The remaining 30% of assessment may use flexible methods where AI may be permitted or required, preparing students for modern professional careers.
Flexible assessments evaluate synthesis and tool-literacy, requiring students to produce iterative research, collaborative projects, and ethically-documented AI use. Examples include:
Students must pass the in-person component.
Certification is issued per degree, per faculty, or per university.
Assured Assessment provides a clear framework that universities can adopt, verify, and promote to students and employers worldwide.
Universities adopt the Assured Assessment standard, committing to at least 70% supervised, in-person assessments across their degree programs. Assessment formats can include written exams, oral presentations, lab demonstrations, work placements, and more. Each university meets the Assured Assessment standard its own way.
Assessment practices are verified against the standard. Upon meeting the criteria, the university, faculty, or individual degree program is awarded the Assured Assessment™ certification mark.
Graduates from certified programs carry a recognised, international certification mark that declares to future employers that they have earned their credential. Employers can trust that certified graduates have demonstrated genuine knowledge and competency through rigorous, supervised assessment.
A widely recognised, international certification mark increases graduate employment prospects for students from certified universities.
Leading academics, former chancellors, and education regulators are calling for urgent reform. Here is what they are saying.
Universities are being urged to adopt clear rules on the use of artificial intelligence after an academic admitted using AI to write an opinion piece defending the technology, exposing the lack of consistent policy across the sector.
Bridie Smith and Caroline Schelle
A Western Sydney University academic has admitted she used artificial intelligence to help write an opinion piece published in defence of AI, raising fresh questions about transparency and the use of the technology within universities.
Harriet Alexander and Sally Rawsthorne
Industrial-scale fraud is undermining the value of tertiary qualifications. As an academic, I have seen first-hand how AI-enabled cheating has spread, and it has made me question whether a university degree still holds the value it once did.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert
Cheating has become omnipresent. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t used A.I. to get through some assignment in college, yet the school was at first slow to realize how widespread this would become. As freshman year went on, some professors suggested that the “nuclear option” might be called for: allowing faculty to proctor in-person exams, a practice banned at the university for over a century to demonstrate “confidence in the honor” of students.
Theo Baker
Nearly 90 percent of college students had used ChatGPT to help with homework. Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate. We're talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here.
James D. Walsh
The only pedagogically robust response to LLMs in universities is at least a partial return to traditional methods. Reliance on online coursework has to be reduced; a significant return to paper and pen is required. This is the only way we can guarantee that students are not cheating.
Paul Sagar
Universities risk further reputational erosion if the public concludes that higher education exists primarily to collect fees and issue degrees while allowing AI-enabled academic dishonesty to proliferate unchecked.
Alan Manly OAM
Employers are losing faith in university qualifications as AI-driven cheating undermines the value of degrees. Businesses are increasingly favouring experienced candidates over fresh graduates whose skills and knowledge cannot be verified.
Gemma Tognini
Two of the nation's most respected former chancellors are urging universities to bring students back to campus for supervised exams and in-person assessments to counter an epidemic of students cheating using artificial intelligence.
Ros Thomas
"70% of the final mark or thereabouts has to come from in-person supervised assessments. And the student has to pass that 70%." Alan Finkel PhD discusses the urgent need for assessment reform.
Interview starts at 4 minutes and 15 seconds.
Interview with Nadia Mitsopoulos
Contract cheating companies are resorting to increasingly desperate tactics such as sneaking into lectures, infiltrating group chats, and impersonating professors as generative AI takes over the cheating market from traditional essay mills.
Sally Rawsthorne
Six senior academics in three states estimated 80 per cent of students are using ChatGPT or similar AI engines to cheat assignments, essays and exams, claiming university administrations are failing to crack down on the practice.
Ros Thomas
At least a dozen Australian universities are using AI detection software to catch AI cheating, and they are making mistakes. Students across the country say the false allegations are costing them money, time and stress.
Julia Bergin
Assessments are to education what laws are to a virtuous life. For AI, or any technology, to be a net benefit, we need deep thinkers who understand how to use technology for the common good.
Paul Morrissey
A comprehensive discussion paper commissioned by TEQSA outlining directions for assessment reform in higher education in response to generative AI, emphasising the need for multiple, inclusive, and contextualised assessment approaches.
Jason M Lodge, Sarah Howard, Margaret Bearman et al.
Whether you are a university leader, employer, or student, Assured Assessment provides the framework to restore trust in higher education qualifications worldwide.