We know many of you will have seen the recent updates regarding Turnitin's licensing changes and may have concerns about the use of student work.

What's Turnitin?

You may be familiar with Turnitin already. But in case you're not, Turnitin is used by the University to check assignments for copied or closely matched text. It's offered to students as a learning tool to help you enhance your academic writing and use sources correctly, all with the goal of ensuring your work is original and that you avoid cases of misconduct.

What are the Proposals?

Turnitin recently proposed changes to its licence terms. As part of the proposals, it was flagged that there could be a risk of student submissions, both past and future, to be used to help develop or improve AI-related services. This raised concerns across the higher education sector about student consent, intellectual property rights and the use of student data. Many universities and students' unions across the country raised complaints, which prompted the proposed changes to be paused.

What is Herts doing about it?

Please be reassured that both the University of Hertfordshire and Herts SU are approaching this matter thoughtfully and with students' academic interests at the forefront. Your President Education, Judith, remains committed to standing up for students and will continue to advocate strongly against any practices that could lead to the exploitation of student work or data.

We'll be sure to keep you informed as discussions develop, but for now, please stay calm and know that your interests are being represented throughout this process.