Universities moving away from using software to detect AI and alternative testing methods w/ the TEU's Julie Douglas and the University of Auckland's Shahper Richter: 6 October, 2025

95bFM: The Wire

Recently, the University of Auckland, Massey University, and the Victoria University of Wellington, have announced they will not be using software to check over student’s work for AI plagiarism.

This has left concerns over what the future of checking for AI will mean in these universities, and whether other universities, and tertiary institutions as a whole, will follow suit.

On Friday, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to the National President of the Tertiary Education Union, or TEU, Julie Douglas, about this announcement and the union’s thoughts on it.

Following on from my chat with Douglas, Joel spoke to Shahper Richter, a Senior Marketing Lecturer at the University of Auckland about using “interactive oral assessments” or IOA’s, as a way to combat AI in testing students.

She has been testing IOA’s over the past couple of years. In a piece on the Conversation which she co-authors with the University of Auckland’s Patrick Dodd, she says this method of testing is “one of the most effective and authentic ways to see what students really know in the age of AI.”

Joel spoke to her about this method of testing, and what it entails.