The universities are facing a tough technological challenge that needs to be comprehensively addressed.

The government, through the Ministry of Education, the universities, lecturers, students, their parents, and other stakeholders should be concerned about this problem that undermines the quality of qualifications.

It is also a critical matter of the need to uphold high moral standards and sustain the integrity of the graduates coming out of these institutions. Plagiarism and cheating in examinations are nothing new. Some people are always looking for shortcuts to circumvent the rules, regulations, and standards for their selfish benefit.

This is now being compounded by the emergence and increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the learners in these institutions of higher learning. It is going to complicate the situation with the universities risking producing half-baked graduates who have impressive grades but nothing to show for it in the real depth of knowledge and expertise.

AI is worsening the growing temptation to cheat in exams in the universities. According to the Commission for University Education (CUE), this is now the leading disciplinary issue in the universities, accounting for 87 per cent of all the reported cases. The higher learning institutions recorded 3,841 student disciplinary cases last year, out of which 3,352 involved exam irregularities. Technological advancements such as sophisticated mobile phones, smartwatches, and the use of AI are fuelling the malpractice.

The key issue here is overreliance on AI by students to do their assignments. To remedy this, universities should, perhaps, consider easing the pressure by weighting the continuous assessment tests (CATs) more than the end-of-semester exams. They currently account for 40 per cent of the final grade.

There is a need for experts and policymakers to seriously address this problem and come up with practical solutions to restore credibility to learning and the certificates awarded to the students.