The move back towards genuine student expression in higher education

UCT's Leslie Social Sciences Building, home to the Faculty of Commerce.

As the 2026 academic semester gains momentum, Dr Philip Broster, lecturer within the Professional Communication Unit of the School of Management Studies at the University of Cape Town, focuses his work on how students navigate the modern pressures of technology and professional environments.

Today, he is part of a growing global movement of educators who are deliberately deactivating automated text detection software.

Broster understands that true human expression is inherently flawed and highly specific, allowing him to easily identify connotations of when a student has entirely outsourced their thinking to automated writing software.

"In some cases, it is very obvious that students have relied almost completely on these tools," Broster tells IOL. "However, if students use it as a tool to assist them and they use it well, it is almost impossible, if not impossible, to detect."

Brad Latilla Campbell, the Country Manager for Crimson Education, shares the sentiment that international admissions teams are moving away from detection software entirely, placing their trust back in human judgment.

"When admissions officers sit with ten applications in a row, the patterns become obvious," Latilla Campbell states.

He acknowledges that software has a valid role in researching universities or stress-testing ideas, but it becomes detrimental when it takes over the writing.

"A strong academic record gets you into the conversation, but it does not get you the offer," he says.

" I have seen students with eight or nine distinctions write essays that say nothing about who they are; a perfect academic record means nothing if the essay feels constructed rather than felt."

The reality of these tools became evident in October 2025 when UCT scrapped its primary detection tool, Turnitin, because of reliability concerns.

Sukaina Walji, Director of UCT’s Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching, confirmed the decision to drop Turnitin during an interview on Voice of the Cape. She stated that detection software became simply unreliable because it could not keep pace with advancing AI writing.

Turnitin began to incorrectly flag genuine student essays while allowing automated text to pass through.

Stellenbosch University has also discontinued its automated text detection functionality, with senior advisor Dr Hanelie Adendorff describing the reliance on such tools as counterproductive to a learning-centred approach.