Universities drop AI detection tools over fears about accuracy: Some institutions are overhauling assessment and trying to move away from the emphasis on surveillance

So the problem here is degree inflation. 20 years ago when I was getting my first master’s degree it was a 5 years of in person classes. In the meantime degrees became required for lots of positions. Teachers need to get additional degrees to get promotions, you need a degree to apply for a job in the public sector and so on. So what used to be a proof of your qualifications became just a certificate you need to get. Now I’m getting my second master’s degree and it’s a year of online classes, without any in person evaluation. We will either start distinguishing between bullshit degrees from online universities and real ones or all of them will lose any value.

I work in higher education at legitimate public colleges, and increasingly, many degrees feel like little more than credentials sold for tuition. Instructors may never meet their students, courses often consist of recycled online content and multiple-choice quizzes, and students commonly rely on ChatGPT.

The quality of instruction can be equally troubling. I have seen someone earn a cybersecurity certificate and begin teaching the subject the following semester, while another instructor requires programming assignments to be printed on paper. After working at two reputable colleges within a large public system, and seeing the poor quality of my wife’s recent master’s program, it is difficult not to view much of higher education as a sham.