Turnitin user agreement changes postponed after Higher Education sector backlash

From coursework to final year theses, most students and instructors know the similarity (and recently, AI) detector Turnitin. Heavily integrated into the global education system, it serves more than 71 million students worldwide, and according to Uni Compare, it is used by 98% of UK universities. 

The Turnitin end user licence agreement (EULA) is the legal contract approved by students and instructors that describes how assignments are submitted, stored, and processed. 

The platform announced changes to the agreement in July, now confirmed to not be updated before 1 September 2027. 

Proposed updates allowed the possibility of Turnitin using student submissions to improve or develop AI tools. This raised a fear amongst several Student Unions and student communities that their work would be used to build models that could be commercialised, or used without specific consent over whether their work can be used to train models or not, as Turnitin is often required as a submission portal by universities. 

Following these concerns, Turnitin released a statement confirming it does not, and has no plans to, use student submissions to train generative AI/large language models (LLMs), like their Clarity AI assistant.  

Turnitin have also stated that it may use anonymised submissions to improve its detection and assessment tools, which are themselves AI models, but that do not generate content based on student submissions. While any changes have been currently postponed, Turnitin has confirmed they intend to revisit implementing these updates next year.   

Higher Education institutions and Student Unions have expressed concerns and taken action to different extents.  

Despite Turnitin postponing any changes, University of Southampton are moving away from the platform completely, choosing not to renew their contract after the 2026/27 academic year and “will begin phasing out the use of this service immediately”. They are also considering alternative options, with current instructions suggesting the Originality check option on the BlackBoard Assignment tool. 

University of Aberystwyth lobbied alongside professional body and charity UCISA against the proposed changes. They remain contractually tied to Turnitin until July 2027 as they continue to evaluate if BlackBoard Assignment could be a viable alternative. 

University of Loughborough welcomed Turnitin’s assurances and reaffirms their commitment to data transparency and academic integrity a statement on similar notes than Imperial’s: “There are no changes to how Turnitin is used at Imperial during the current academic year (2026-27), but we use this year to continue to engage with Turnitin regarding any changes they are planning to understand the implications for our community”. 

There is no mention in Imperial’s statement of alternatives to Turnitin that could be used in case any unwanted EULA changes come into place.