Official SOAS Students’ Union statement on Turnitin
We know that students have raised concerns about SOAS’s use of Turnitin, particularly around the privacy and protection of student work, data protection, intellectual property and the growing role of AI in education.
Our Co-President Democracy & Education, Samson Onwe, has been raising these concerns directly with senior University leadership on behalf of students. This has included questions about how student submissions are stored and protected, how they may be used in the future, and whether Turnitin remains the right technology for SOAS.
We welcome the University’s response and its commitment to continuing this conversation with the Students’ Union. The University has confirmed that Turnitin will make no changes to its End-User Licence Agreement during the 2026/27 academic year and that staff and student data will not be used to train Turnitin’s AI products.
The University has also confirmed that its current Turnitin contract ends at the end of this academic year and will be reviewed. This review will consider Turnitin’s role within assessment, developments across the higher education sector and potential alternative solutions. The Students’ Union will be invited to nominate representatives to the project board, giving students a formal place in discussions about the future of Turnitin at SOAS.
For us, this conversation goes beyond Turnitin. The rapid development of AI raises important questions about student data, privacy, intellectual property and who has control over the work students produce. We believe these questions need to be considered carefully, transparently and collaboratively, with students at the centre.
We will continue to work constructively with the University throughout this review, while making sure that student concerns and experiences are properly represented. We will also continue working with the University and sector partners to seek greater clarity around student work already held by Turnitin and the rights students have in relation to those submissions.
We want to hear from you. If you have concerns about Turnitin, how your work is handled, or what you think SOAS should consider when reviewing its assessment technology, get in touch with us. Your feedback will help inform the conversations we have with the University and the future of this work.
SOAS Students' Union