RTL Nieuws finds AI text in Dutch master's theses, Jisc and Google start UK partnership, and more - AI in Education #71

Over the past two years AI Brief has grown into a website, 19 LinkedIn pages with more than 81,000 followers and 15 newsletters with more than 41,000 subscribers, AI in Education among them. Thank you for reading, following and passing it on.

Until now, our newsletters were assembled automatically: the news assigned to each newsletter went into a simple template. From this edition, our small team, Maiko, Rene and Stefan, edits every edition so it reads as one storyline: related news together, the important stories explained, the rest kept short. We still use AI tooling throughout, and we decide what goes in and how it is told.

In this edition, covering 14 to 21 October:

• RTL Nieuws found that 20% of the master's theses it checked at 12 Dutch universities were largely written by AI chatbots, and the education minister called this fraud.
• The Simons Foundation, Anthropic and OpenAI committed $15 million to help mathematicians evaluate and use AI.
• Jisc and Google started a two year partnership to support AI adoption at UK universities and colleges.

Google

Jisc and Google will support UK universities and colleges with AI adoption through training, governance guidance, workshops and practitioner communities over two years. The partnership will also create a Jisc reseller framework for Google Workspace for Education and recruit institutions to test AI in teaching, research and administration, with a focus on equitable access. Jisc and Google

In the Philippines, Google launched free online AI courses for teachers with CHED, DepEd and TESDA. The lessons take 15 to 45 minutes and cover classroom instruction, lesson preparation, administrative tasks and tools including Gemini, Guided Learning and Deep Research. Google is also expanding access to its AI tools for education and research. Teachers can apply to test curriculum specific STEM simulations, and researchers can use the Deep Review document checking system and new tools for reproducing scientific methods. Philippines · Teachers and researchers

OpenAI, Anthropic and research

OpenAI launched the Rosalind Academic Plan for eligible US university biology labs, with up to 30 sponsored Business Standard seats and access to GPT-Rosalind for 12 months. Research data from these accounts will not be used to train OpenAI models by default, and organizational approval is required. OpenAI

The Simons Foundation, Anthropic and OpenAI committed $15 million in combined funding and resources for workshops and initiatives that help mathematicians evaluate AI assisted results, learn new tools and set standards for AI use. The foundation will award the money, partly through an open call, and the two companies will provide AI tools and computing to researchers the foundation supports. The Association of Human Mathematicians says more than 1,000 professors and PhD students have pledged not to work for AI companies and to avoid using their models in research. The group formed after criticism of AI companies using models to solve difficult mathematical problems, including OpenAI's release of 722 papers earlier in October. Simons Foundation · Association of Human Mathematicians

Emory University now offers Claude for Education to students, faculty and staff with active emory.edu accounts. Standard licenses are free, while premium licenses cost $50 per month and are paid for by departments. Emory advises users not to enter protected or restricted data and is evaluating more Claude features in limited pilots. Emory

A few dozen San Diego State University students marched on 20 October, calling on California State University to cancel its OpenAI contract. The system renewed the agreement for three years at $39 million, after an earlier $17 million contract that gave students, faculty and staff access to ChatGPT. The students cited job cuts, AI use by immigration enforcement and the Israeli military, environmental damage and concerns about AI's effect on education. San Diego State

The American Institutes for Research appointed neuroscientist Gaya Dowling to lead its 100 year AI Century Study, a national longitudinal project on how AI affects human development, education and opportunity. The study will use repeated surveys, interviews and administrative records to track effects across individuals, life stages and generations. AIR

Universities

Qatar University, Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Scale AI signed an agreement to develop the National Co-Advisor Platform. The AI system will give students personalized academic guidance and help advisors identify students who need support, with a virtual assistant, analytics, alerts and human oversight. Qatar University

Davenport University in Michigan received a five year, $3 million Strengthening Institutions Program grant from the US Department of Education. It will use the money for its STAR initiative, which updates academic programs, expands AI credentials and experiential learning, improves student support and trains faculty and staff, to prepare more than 4,000 students for an AI enabled workforce. The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will offer a one year, 30 credit Master of Science in Marketing from fall 2027, covering generative and agentic AI in marketing and business. Davenport · Maryland Smith

An AACSB survey of 558 business school leaders in 75 countries and territories found that 87% consider AI readiness a high or very high priority, but only about one in five rate their schools as highly prepared. Budget pressures limit what schools can do to improve curricula, faculty skills and student outcomes. Rollie Jobs is working with universities including the University of Notre Dame to provide continuously updated job postings and AI based workforce insights, and Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business has added the platform to its graduate business career services. AACSB · Rollie Jobs

Theses, exams and a dismissal

RTL Nieuws used the Pangram detection tool on hundreds of master's theses from 12 Dutch universities and found that 20% were largely written by AI chatbots, including 6% that appeared almost entirely AI generated. Education Minister Rianne Letschert called this fraud and said universities should improve their checks for misuse. RTL Nieuws

UWorld added Respondus Monitor to its Nursing Learning Platform, so nursing programs can record remote exams, flag potential irregularities for faculty review and rely less on live proctoring. UWorld

Christine Apollos, a kindergarten teacher in Concord, Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit on 28 September seeking to overturn her 2025 dismissal. She alleges that Thoreau Elementary principal Justin Sparks used AI to write the evaluation supporting her termination. The Concord-Carlisle School District says only an AI grammar checker was used and that poor performance reviews supported the dismissal. An arbitrator upheld the decision after using GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 5 to assess GPTZero, without notifying the parties. Apollos is seeking a new hearing. The Apollos case

Rules for schools

The Sharjah Private Education Authority introduced an ethical framework that lets students use AI tools for research and learning, but not to write answers or complete assignments. The rules require original work, disclosure of AI use where appropriate, information checking, data protection and human oversight, with responsibilities for students, teachers, parents, school leaders and IT teams. Sharjah

A Korea Educational Development Institute survey of 271 South Korean teachers found that 54.6% use AI in schools at least weekly, while only 17.3% know the relevant laws and policies. Teachers most often reported unclear AI responses, learning risks, data concerns and copyright issues. The researchers recommend that schools and local education offices share responsibility for monitoring and responding to problems with AI. KEDI

Nova Scotia has no provincewide policy for AI in classrooms, which leaves regional education centres and school boards to set different rules. Parents, teachers and education experts are calling for consistent guardrails and more training, and the provincial Department of Education says it is reviewing possible guidance. Nova Scotia

In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Springfield Education Association is organizing a petition for a moratorium on new AI technology facing students and staff. It follows plans to pilot Alpha School's AI program at Kiley Prep and John F. Kennedy middle schools, which drew concerns about limited research, student privacy, teaching quality, disability access and the loss of human interaction. Springfield

Training in India and Pakistan

The Andhra Pradesh School Education Department directed about 80,000 government teachers of Classes VI to VIII to complete an AI Foundations and Literacy course on the LEAP app by the end of October. The course combines AI Samarth with selected Bodhan AI resources and covers AI concepts, machine learning, data literacy, responsible use, privacy, security and prompting. Teachers must complete the lessons and assessment, record their status and obtain a certificate. The department will hold three online training sessions and monitor progress weekly. Andhra Pradesh

Pakistan's Ministry of Education and Gauth AI signed an MoU under which Gauth will provide 4,000 free subscriptions, including 1,000 for teachers at Daanish schools, and 180 more for local students. Pakistan will also be the first country after the United States to receive paid Gauth AI services. IIT Delhi and Lithuanian partners trained nearly 300 Indian schoolgirls in AI foundations, responsible use and ethical technology development, in a programme developed by Women Go Tech and delivered with the Lithuanian Embassy in India and UNESCO's Regional Office for South Asia. Gauth AI · IIT Delhi

Learning products and workplace training

McGraw Hill added Learning Studio to its Connect course solution, with AI generated summaries, podcasts and knowledge checks based on assigned course content. It also partnered with Breakout Learning to give instructors AI supported tools for small group discussions, participation tracking and personalized feedback. McGraw Hill

South African private education provider Advtech took a 25% stake in education technology company MathU, gaining a board seat and exclusive rights to its current and future AI enhanced education products. MathU's platform is already used in Advtech schools for personalised mathematics and physical science learning, with English planned next. Advtech and MathU

Pluralsight launched its AI MCP at its Pluralsight Shift customer conference. It connects supported AI tools with Pluralsight's learning content, skills data and analytics, so leaders can create team learning plans, track business impact and generate ROI reports. Pluralsight also released new skill assessments, redesigned analytics and more German, Spanish and Canadian French course translations. Pluralsight

South Korean companies are using AI conversation services to raise participation in corporate English training, track learning and measure results. Spicc EZ Labs plans to expand its Speak service with AI phone English and tools that measure job skills and return on investment. Weverse Brain's Max AI LMS identifies employees who stop participating and alerts managers, and Ringle offers AI training for companywide use and human led lessons for staff preparing for overseas assignments. Preply appointed Bilal Zia, who led data science and analytics at Duolingo, as VP of Data Science and Analytics, and Lillian Reaume as Chief People Officer. Korean companies · Preply