Nationwide, 2,962 students were penalised for using AI over the last two years – mainly by plagiarising content and passing it off as their own work

Thousands of sneaky university students have been caught out using AI to cheat.

Bosses at 82% of institutions revealed they had reprimanded students for turning to banned bots such as ChatGPT. Birmingham City University was the worst, with 402 cheats rapped in the last two years. Nationwide, 2,962 students were penalised for using AI over that period – mainly by plagiarising content and passing it off as their own work, Freedom of Information requests found.