Three students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have received zero marks for a written assignment in a health and politics module, after being found to have used generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools in their submissions.
According to NTU’s response to The Straits Times on 22 June, the decision followed an investigation in April.
All students were informed of the outcome in early May and were penalised for academic misconduct, primarily due to the presence of non-existent academic references, fictitious statistics, and broken web links in their essays.
The university stated that students were repeatedly warned throughout the semester against using AI tools.
These warnings, NTU said, were clearly communicated by the course instructor, who is understood to be Assistant Professor Sabrina Luk from the School of Social Sciences. The essay accounted for 45 per cent of the overall course grade.
Two students admitted to using Gen AI in some capacity. The third, however, has publicly disputed the accusation.
This student, a Year 3 undergraduate in public policy and global affairs, posted her experience on Reddit on 19 June.
She alleged that the university failed to properly consider evidence she provided, including version histories from Google Docs, a “time lapse” of her writing process via the Draftback Chrome extension, and samples of previous essays demonstrating consistent writing style.
She claimed the accusation stemmed from three citation mistakes and the use of a citation sorter to alphabetise her references. She said these were misinterpreted as signs of AI use, despite her reference list containing 20 accurate citations.
She was ultimately given a zero grade, a permanent academic warning, and a drop in GPA. Her attempt to appeal was reportedly thwarted by administrative delays, including an inability to reschedule a required consultation before the deadline.
A second student from the same degree course echoed her concerns.
Speaking to The Straits Times, the Year 4 student said he initially lost ten marks after acknowledging limited AI use to locate information, not to write content.
Despite this, the school’s Academic Integrity Officer overturned the professor’s initial penalty and issued a zero grade without a further hearing.
Both students claim that the processes lacked transparency and leniency. The Reddit poster followed with another post on 20 June, stating that five students from the same modules—HA4040 and HA3026—had faced similar accusations from the same professor.
NTU did not confirm this number but reiterated that citing non-existent sources is a serious offence that undermines academic standards. The university emphasised that students are responsible for understanding what constitutes AI use, especially when tools go beyond grammar and formatting support.
The controversy has ignited wider discussion on how universities should manage emerging AI technologies.
In March 2024, all six of Singapore’s autonomous universities, including NTU, affirmed that AI tools may be used in coursework, but students must comply with institutional policies on academic integrity.
One Redditor wrote, “I would’ve taken an additional year to finish my PhD if I wasn’t allowed to use Zotero. It’s literally a referencing library. It had 0 input to the substance of my work. It’s a joke that it’s considered AI. ” Zotero is a free and open-source reference management software used to organise bibliographic data and related research materials.
Globally, academics warn that imperfect detectors and subjective judgments can wrongly penalise honest students.
A February 2024 Guardian commentary described the “desperate scramble to combat AI” as risking “severe stress and academic consequences” for the innocent.
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