Universities are replacing written coursework with oral exams to counter AI. The technology needed to do this at scale does not yet exist.
With 88 per cent of UK students now using AI tools in assessments, universities are turning to viva voce examinations as a way of testing whether students actually understand their work. The pedagogical case is strong. The logistical reality at scale is formidable.
By Wistl Editorial · · Higher Ed
Professors Duncan Brumby and Anna Cox at UCL, writing in the Times Higher Education earlier this year, proposed sampled viva voce assessments as a scalable response to the challenge of AI in university coursework. Their argument, outlined in analysis published by UCL's Interaction Centre, was that rather than attempting to detect AI-generated text, a process that has consistently been shown to be unreliable, universities should instead test whether students can explain and defend their work in spoken conversation. A small, randomly selected percentage of students would complete a viva, creatin