Nanyang Technological University hit three students with zeroes after they used generative AI for an assignment. The students faced academic misconduct penalties for including fake references, bogus stats, and broken links.
The students were enrolled in a health, disease outbreaks, and politics module. Two admitted using AI tools. The third claimed ignorance that their AI-powered essay service counted as Gen AI.
NTU’s School of Social Sciences had explicitly banned AI use on written work. Students were warned multiple times that AI use would mean zero for the assignment — which was 45% of the course grade. 
The university called faking sources “a serious form of academic misconduct” that damages academic credibility.
The issue blew up after one student’s viral Reddit post on June 19. She said she was accused because of citation errors despite providing proof of her writing process with a Draftback time-lapse.
She got a permanent academic warning and a GPA hit after NTU deemed it academic fraud. She tried appealing but found no support or face-to-face hearing.
“I deeply regret not double-checking my citations and rushing through the process,”
she wrote to the professor, adding she understands “the importance of academic integrity.”The professor replied thanking her for the corrected essay and updated sources.
The student said she was “shut down” repeatedly and told “there was no negotiation.” She claims the academic integrity appeal happened only via email with no panel.
A second student faced fraud accusations over allegedly fake citations, despite evidence. His professor had docked 10 marks for AI use just to find info, not write content. But the academic integrity officer overturned that to zero with no hearing.
The third student used ChatGPT to organise references and also disputes the findings.
Back in March, Singapore’s six autonomous universities, including NTU, allowed AI in assignments — as long as academic honesty rules stand.
Additional reporting by Emerald Lo.
