A Chinese international student with barely intelligible English has admitted cheating his way through a postgraduate degree at Adelaide University.
The 24-year-old told The Australian he and all the other international students in his computer innovation course, who are mainly from China and India, all use AI “wherever possible”, and that he wouldn’t be able to graduate without it.
But the student, given the pseudonym Albert, blamed the university for not using AI detection tools and said students believed cheats were not being punished because “the university just wants our money”.
“I use Gemini and ChatGPT for all my assignments and projects. A third of my exams are online, and some units entirely, so AI is very convenient to use. All the international students – we’re mostly Chinese and Indian – completely rely on AI to pass our exams,” he said.
“Now AI is too strong. It’s way better than most of our tutors. We trust AI more than we trust our teachers … you don’t even need good teachers for Chinese students who’ll pay big fees to get an Australian degree using AI.”
Albert also said he and other foreign students initially worried about getting caught and being failed for cheating, but then realised Adelaide University is among several Australian tertiary institutions that don’t use AI detection software.
When asked how many students were using AI, he said: “All of us. I know that because our English is a problem to pass exams. Everyone is using 100% AI to get through.”
Another international student at the University of Western Australia also blamed the university for allowing them to cheat.
“They pretend to teach us, and we pretend to learn … except we’re paying huge fees for this AI circus. Don’t universities owe us an education?” they said.
UWA digital forensics specialist Dr Jonathan Albright found that none of Australia’s most prestigious Group of Eight universities, which make $40 billion a year in revenue, are using AI detection tools to prove misconduct or enforce their AI policies.
One institution, the University of Queensland, has even wound back its official position on AI detection tools, claiming they “disproportionally flag certain cohorts of students”, which Dr Albright said he presumed referred to international students.
According to the latest Department of Education data, in year to December 2025 846,321 international students studied in Australia – 23% from China and 17% from India – and a government report last year estimated that about 40% of foreign students end up gaining permanent residency.
Header image: Bonython Hall at the University of Adelaide (Paul Weston, CC BY 2.5, Link).
