US higher education students are using AI to write assignments at nearly double the rate of their peers in the UK and Australia, according to new data from Turnitin. The findings come as educators, rather than IT departments, take the lead in setting AI policies on campus.
Student AI usage varies by country and level
Turnitin's latest Learning Integrity Insights Report, released July 7, analyzed submissions to its AI writing detection tools from October 2025 through April 2026. In US higher education, 19.4% of student submissions showed an AI writing score above 80%, indicating that the majority of the text was likely AI-generated. That rate is roughly double the 9.8% in the UK and 10.2% in Australia. The sample sizes were substantial: 33 million submissions from US institutions, 2.1 million from the UK, and 3.1 million from Australia.
Secondary school students across all three countries used AI at the >80% threshold much less frequently, with rates between 5% and 6%. The K-12 analysis drew from 3.5 million submissions in the US, 780,000 in the UK, and 703,000 in Australia.
Educators drive AI policy and tool adoption
The report also highlighted who is guiding AI adoption on campus. In a webinar poll of 160 participants, 48% said teaching and learning leaders are primarily responsible for implementing AI tools at their institutions. IT and technology leadership accounted for 17%, while cross-functional committees made up 16%. This marks a clear shift from earlier phases of edtech adoption, where IT departments often held the reins.
Annie Chechitelli, Chief Product Officer at Turnitin, said, "Every educator I talk to wants the same two things: they want to see how their students are actually using AI, and they want to decide for themselves when it belongs in an assignment and when it doesn't. Our job is to give educators the visibility and the flexibility to make that call in their own classroom."
What educators want from AI tools
The demand for education-specific AI tools highlights a broader shift toward AI for Education. Turnitin's report identifies three priorities from educators: transparency into how students use AI, the ability to customize settings for AI's role in each assignment, and tools that scaffold different assignment types to support student learning.
These needs come as new state laws add urgency. Ohio and Virginia now require school districts to adopt formal AI policies or follow "division-managed" AI frameworks. The global insights draw on data from more than 60 Turnitin education events held in the first half of 2026, along with analysis of student interactions with Turnitin Clarity, the company's AI writing transparency tool.
Why this matters for education professionals
Educators face a dual challenge: understanding how students are already using AI and setting clear, consistent policies that preserve academic integrity without stifling legitimate learning. The data shows wide variation in student AI use by country, suggesting that institutional and cultural factors matter as much as the technology itself. The full Q2 2026 Learning Integrity Insights Report is available on Turnitin's website.
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