Third Level Education
Seanad Éireann — 2023-05-04
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Josepha Madigan (FG), Dublin Rathdown

None of us is irreplaceable and I am sure we could have avatars in the future. The Senator makes some very valid points. I should mention that legislation has been in place since 2019. Ireland became the first country in Europe to enact legislation to address the growing issue of contract cheating in education and training. There were fines of €100,000 and up to five years' imprisonment for that. Under section 43A, it is an offence to facilitate a learner to cheat; advertise a cheating service; and publish ads for cheating services to learners. As a follow-up to that 2019 legislation, QQI established the national academic integrity network. It raises awareness of academic integrity and has a communications strategy. There is also the global academic integrity network, which the Minister, Deputy Harris, launched in October 2022. It is a consortium of international education agencies. It aims to develop and mobilise an international response to the growing threat of essay mills, especially since online and hybrid learning in the pandemic. There are 24 members in the network, from a number of international jurisdictions and it recently met to discuss the implications of AI tools such as ChatGPT for academic integrity. However, I note what the Senator said about a technological revolution. There should be consistency within the higher education systems and indeed the education system as a whole.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2023-05-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-05-04