{ "title": "Universities that turned off Turnitin's AI detection", "publisher": "CiteOwl", "url": "https://citeowl.com/blog/universities-that-turned-off-ai-detection", "collected": "2026-09-04", "licence": "CC BY 4.0. Reuse with attribution to CiteOwl.", "method": { "summary": "Every institution named in any roundup of universities disabling Turnitin's AI writing indicator was checked against a page the institution itself publishes. An entry is verified only when the university's own page states it. Where no such page could be found, the claim is recorded in `unverified` with the reason, rather than dropped or repeated.", "inclusion_rule": "A statement on the institution's own domain, quoted verbatim in `what_was_turned_off`.", "verified_count": 17, "unverified_count": 9 }, "caveat": "A snapshot of what each institution published as of the collection date. Policies change and pages move. Absence from this list is not evidence a university still runs the detector; it means we found no published statement either way.", "verified": [ { "institution": "University of Arizona", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Turnitin AI Detection \"temporarily disabled for all UArizona courses\", on the grounds that the feature \"generated inconsistent results\"", "date": "27 June 2023", "source_name": "Dean of Students", "source_url": "https://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/artificial-intelligence-ai" }, { "institution": "University of Pittsburgh", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"the Teaching Center has disabled the AI-detection tool in Turnitin\", and endorses no detector of any kind", "date": "2023, page reviewed 9 February 2026", "source_name": "Teaching Center", "source_url": "https://teaching.pitt.edu/resources/encouraging-academic-integrity/" }, { "institution": "Vanderbilt University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Turnitin's AI detector disabled for the foreseeable future; text matching kept", "date": "16 August 2023", "source_name": "Brightspace news", "source_url": "https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/2023/08/16/guidance-on-ai-detection-and-why-were-disabling-turnitins-ai-detector/" }, { "institution": "Georgetown University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "AI writing detection turned off in similarity checks, on concerns raised by the main campus faculty executive committee and the Honor Council", "date": "October 2023", "source_name": "Georgetown UIS", "source_url": "https://uis.georgetown.edu/turnitin/" }, { "institution": "Australian National University", "country": "Australia", "what_was_turned_off": "\"ANU has disabled this functionality as of 1 January, 2024 in Turnitin and it is no longer available for ANU staff.\"", "date": "1 January 2024", "source_name": "TELT blog", "source_url": "https://telt.weblogs.anu.edu.au/ai-writing-detection-now-available-in-turnitin/" }, { "institution": "UC Berkeley", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Opted out campuswide after an opt-in pilot that ran from Fall 2023 to the start of Spring 2025", "date": "Post dated 1 May 2025", "source_name": "RTL Commons", "source_url": "https://rtl.berkeley.edu/news/availability-turnitins-artificial-intelligence-detection" }, { "institution": "University of Waterloo", "country": "Canada", "what_was_turned_off": "AI detection functionality in Turnitin discontinued after consultation with associate deans, the Undergraduate Operations Committee and the EdTech Steering Committee", "date": "September 2025", "source_name": "AVP Academic", "source_url": "https://uwaterloo.ca/associate-vice-president-academic/discontinuing-use-ai-detection-functionality-turnitin" }, { "institution": "UCLA (HumTech)", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Declined to adopt Turnitin's AI detection, citing concerns and unanswered questions about accuracy. A unit-level post, not a provost policy.", "date": "9 October 2025", "source_name": "HumTech", "source_url": "https://humtech.ucla.edu/technology/the-imperfection-of-ai-detection-tools/" }, { "institution": "Curtin University", "country": "Australia", "what_was_turned_off": "\"Only the Gen-AI detection feature of Turnitin will be disabled, the regular text-matching originality checks will remain active.\"", "date": "Announced 4 September 2025, effective 1 January 2026", "source_name": "OASIS news", "source_url": "https://www.curtin.edu.au/news/oasis-news/update-on-turnitin-ai-detection-tool/" }, { "institution": "Indiana University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"No AI detection tools (such as GPTZero, Turnitin AI Detection, or Originality.AI) are approved for use at Kelley or Indiana University.\" Turnitin is licensed for plagiarism review only.", "date": "Teaching page updated 12 January 2026", "source_name": "CITL, Kelley playbook", "source_url": "https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/academic-integrity/ai-generated-text.html" }, { "institution": "Washington State University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Contract for Turnitin's AI Detection cancelled. The Turnitin plagiarism package stays available in Canvas.", "date": "Memo dated 11 February 2026", "source_name": "Provost memo, policy page", "source_url": "https://provost.wsu.edu/documents/2026/02/cancellation-of-turnitin-ai-detection-software_memo-to-instructors_provost-office_spring-2026.pdf/" }, { "institution": "Yale University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"The AI detection feature of Turnitin is currently disabled.\"", "date": "Not dated", "source_name": "Poorvu Center", "source_url": "https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/teaching/canvas-yale/instructional-tools/turnitin" }, { "institution": "Michigan State University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"Turnitin AI Detection is not currently available at MSU\"", "date": "Not dated", "source_name": "D2L help", "source_url": "https://help.d2l.msu.edu/msu-docs/other-tools-at-msu/using-assignments-with-turnitin/ai-detection" }, { "institution": "New York University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"AI Writing Detection has been disabled in the Turnitin Similarity Reports.\"", "date": "Not dated, guide updated 10 June 2026", "source_name": "Libraries guide", "source_url": "https://guides.nyu.edu/c.php?g=1307730&p=9624166" }, { "institution": "CU Boulder", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "\"The Turnitin AI Writing Detector, a feature that detects AI writing in originality reports, is not currently available at CU Boulder.\" The page adds that the decision can be reconsidered in the future.", "date": "Not dated", "source_name": "CU Boulder OIT", "source_url": "https://oit.colorado.edu/node/2323" }, { "institution": "Colorado State University", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "A pause rather than a ban. Its teaching institute recommended pausing the rollout, and explains why staff cannot find the tool.", "date": "Not dated", "source_name": "TILT", "source_url": "https://tilt.colostate.edu/ai-and-ai/3/" }, { "institution": "MIT Sloan", "country": "USA", "what_was_turned_off": "Recommends against detectors: \"AI detection software is far from foolproof\". A recommendation, not a confirmed disable.", "date": "Not dated", "source_name": "Sloan EdTech", "source_url": "https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/teach/ai-detectors-dont-work/" } ], "unverified": [ { "institution": "Northwestern", "claim": "Inside Higher Ed reported on 5 August 2026 that it has disabled Turnitin's AI detection. Every roundup repeats it.", "why_excluded": "We found no Northwestern page saying so. Its teaching centre and IT service URLs either return errors or redirect elsewhere. The Inside Higher Ed sentence is the outlet's own reporting rather than a statement issued by the university.", "claim_url": "https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2026/08/05/ai-detectors-are-out-new-approaches-are" }, { "institution": "Johns Hopkins", "claim": "Named everywhere. Roundups describe an \"advisory only\" policy dating from early 2025.", "why_excluded": "The university teaching page that would carry it refused our request. The specific wording quoted around the web appears only in aggregator prose, never with a link to the source document.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "University of Washington", "claim": "Named in Washington State University's own provost memo as an R1 institution that has banned the tool's use in academic integrity.", "why_excluded": "That is one university describing another, which is not the same as its own announcement. UW's Turnitin service page is gone, and its teaching and library AI guidance says nothing about detection.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "Oregon State University", "claim": "Also named in the WSU provost memo.", "why_excluded": "Its student conduct and AI guideline pages both refused our requests, and its Turnitin help page for faculty does not mention AI detection either way.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "Australian Catholic University", "claim": "Listed as March 2025 by several roundups.", "why_excluded": "No institutional source. The March 2025 date appears without attribution wherever it is printed.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "University of Cape Town", "claim": "Listed as October 2025, and it is the entire basis for the \"five countries\" phrasing used elsewhere.", "why_excluded": "The teaching centre page that would carry it does not exist at the address given. No primary found.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "Western University", "claim": "The Western Gazette, the student newspaper, reported that it stopped using Turnitin's AI detection.", "why_excluded": "The article would not load for us. This is likely a good row once we can read it, and it is first in the queue at the next check.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "Alabama, SMU, Iowa State", "claim": "All three trace to a single social media post from December 2023.", "why_excluded": "A post is not an announcement, and we found no institutional page for any of the three.", "claim_url": null }, { "institution": "About thirty more", "claim": "Baylor, Boston University, DePaul, Syracuse, UC Irvine, Maryland, Toronto, UBC, Simon Fraser, Deakin, Macquarie, Dundee, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham and others, all via one registry and its copies.", "why_excluded": "Not independently checked yet. Several are probably true. They join the table one at a time, each when its own source is confirmed.", "claim_url": null } ] }