Curtin pulls Turnitin's AI detection switch

The detection era for AI in higher ed is closing this year, university by university.

Curtin pulls Turnitin's AI detection switch

Curtin University formally disabled Turnitin's AI writing detection across all campuses from 1 January 2026, joining UQ (which switched it off mid-2025) and Australian Catholic University (which piloted disabling it in 2025). Curtin's Academic Board cited the same trio of reasons every other Australian university has cited: false positives concentrated on certain student cohorts, opacity to students, and an inability to distinguish light AI assistance from full generation. Originality matching stays on. The AI score does not.

Why this matters: the detection-as-policing model is collapsing in real time. By mid-2026 the question for university leaders is not whether to use detection but what assessment looks like in a system that has stopped pretending to police AI use. School leaders watching this should expect TEQSA's regulatory-led framework to land in 2026 with a similar implicit message: change the assessment, not the detector. Turnitin itself has pivoted away from detection toward classroom integration. Curtin's announcement.

Microsoft Elevate lands in 1,000 Australian schools

Microsoft launched Microsoft Elevate for Educators in Australia on 23 April, with free subscriptions for up to 1,000 schools to a Career Coach tool that delivers personalised career advice to students. The launch is part of Microsoft's three-million-by-2028 AI skilling commitment for ANZ.

Why this matters: this is a procurement question schools will face this term. A Microsoft-funded product, free for two or three years, with a long-term path back to a paid tier. The decision rule is the same as every ICT free tier: what does the data look like, what happens when the price flips, and what are you teaching students about whose data is whose. Worth a single conversation in the next leadership meeting if your school is among the 1,000. Microsoft announcement.

A fresh report names what unstructured AI does to learning

Professors Jason Lodge (University of Queensland) and Leslie Loble, writing for the Australian Network for Quality Digital Education, have a report out this term on what they call cognitive atrophy from unstructured student AI use. Their headline figure: nearly 80 per cent of Australian students now report using AI tools. The argument is that the risk is not cheating per se, but that the cognitive processes AI shortcuts (working through a hard paragraph, sitting with a confused first draft) are exactly the processes that produce learning.

Why this matters: this is the framing senior leadership needs in front of staff this term. Not "ban AI" or "embrace AI" but "specify which cognitive moves we actually want students doing themselves." The report is short, named-author, and Australian-context, useful in a staff PD slot. UTS coverage of the report.

Compass adds Clipboard to the school-ops stack

Compass Education has acquired Clipboard, the Australian extracurricular management product. Compass already runs across 3,000-plus Australian schools, and the deal extends its surface area into co-curricular and sport admin, two of the workflows still typically running on spreadsheets at most schools.

Why this matters: this is the consolidation arc playing out. Schools running Clipboard are now Compass customers by default. Schools running co-curricular admin on spreadsheets will face a familiar pitch in the next renewal cycle. Worth knowing if your business manager is in mid-procurement on either. Compass.

For the Artificial Intelligence in Education Conference at Swissôtel Sydney on 19 May, the attendee list will be a useful read on which schools are actually moving on this and which are still in the exploratory phase. More on the assessment-and-AI question at https://digitalattitudes.com.au.