The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has transformed teaching and learning, offering students both new opportunities and new challenges.

Like universities in other parts of the world, universities in Türkiye are also reassessing how students should use AI and how academic assessments can continue to measure genuine learning in an increasingly AI-driven educational environment.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to separate AI from the daily lives of modern students, whether in schools or universities. But the real challenge is how the technology is affecting students’ knowledge and skills.

Erman Akıllı, a professor in the Department of International Relations at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, said AI has forced universities and academics to reconsider what assessment is actually intended to measure.

"For many years, written assignments were treated as evidence of reading, research, analysis and writing ability. Generative AI has weakened this assumption because a polished essay can now be produced without necessarily demonstrating that the student understands the subject.”

As a result, Akıllı said academics are paying greater attention to the intellectual process behind a student’s final submission.

Akıllı also addressed the challenge facing universities in Türkiye as they seek to balance academic integrity with the changing demands of the labor market.

"Following the Council of Higher Education's (YÖK) ethical guidelines for generative AI in scientific research and education, universities across Türkiye have had to confront a dual reality: AI detection software is technically unreliable and prone to false positives, while banning AI entirely ignores the labor market's demand for AI-literate graduates.”

He said approaches remain uneven across universities in Türkiye, with some institutions continuing to focus on plagiarism, prohibition and detection, while others are developing guidelines for responsible AI use.

"In my view, universities need to move beyond a purely punitive approach. Students should learn how to use AI critically, ethically and transparently, while remaining responsible for every argument, source and conclusion they submit.”

Rethinking student assessment

This shift is also changing how traditional assignments are designed. Akıllı said essays and presentations can remain effective, but only when they are structured to demonstrate individual learning.

He said a generic essay followed by a single final submission is no longer enough to demonstrate individual learning, while assignments that require original arguments, engagement with course materials and connections between theory and contemporary cases can provide a clearer picture of students’ understanding.

"Requiring proposals, annotated bibliographies, preliminary drafts and short oral defenses can help academics assess both the final product and the learning process.”

Drawing on his own teaching experience, Akıllı said he asks students to present their papers and respond to questions from their peers and their professor.

"This encourages them to take intellectual ownership of their work and allows me to assess whether they genuinely understand, can explain and are prepared to defend the arguments they have submitted.”

Protecting originality

Beyond assessment, concerns are also growing over the loss of originality as students increasingly rely on AI for tasks that are part of the learning process, including writing, research, coding, translation and problem-solving.

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into education, the question is no longer simply whether students should use it, but how its use can support learning without replacing the intellectual processes education is intended to develop.

AI researcher Gloria Shkurti Özdemir, director of the Emerging Technologies and Artificial Intelligence Research Center at Khazar University, said the distinction depends on whether AI helps students think more effectively or enables them to avoid thinking altogether.

"Using AI to explain a difficult concept, challenge an argument, generate practice questions, provide feedback or help structure ideas can support learning,” she said.

"But if a student asks AI to produce an assignment and submits it without understanding, questioning or engaging with the content, then AI has effectively replaced the learning process.”

For Özdemir, the key question is whether students are developing their own abilities through their use of AI.

"I think the key question is: After using AI, has the student’s own understanding, judgment and ability improved?”

"If the student cannot explain, evaluate or defend what the AI produced, then very little learning has actually taken place,” she added.

Özdemir also highlighted the importance of AI literacy as students increasingly encounter AI-generated information, warning that such systems can produce content that is "inaccurate, outdated, incomplete or entirely fabricated.” She described the ability to recognize and assess such information as "one of the most important forms of AI literacy.”

She also pointed to the risk of automation bias, whereby users place excessive trust in automated outputs because they appear objective or authoritative.

"This is particularly important in education because students may gradually stop questioning an answer once it is presented fluently by an AI system. The danger is not only misinformation, but the weakening of independent judgment.”

Özdemir said students need to develop the habit of questioning AI-generated information rather than accepting it at face value.

"Students therefore need to move from simply asking, ‘What does AI say?' to asking, ‘Why should I trust this, what evidence supports it and can I independently verify it?'”

She identified critical thinking, source evaluation, fact-checking and triangulation as key skills, while urging students to verify important claims through primary sources, academic literature, official databases and other credible sources.

"Ultimately, I think education should teach students to treat AI not as an authority, but as a tool whose outputs require human judgment.”

YÖK has issued an ethical guide on the use of AI in scientific research and publication. The guide emphasizes transparency, academic integrity, accountability, privacy and responsible use.

Rather than imposing a blanket ban, YÖK allows universities to develop their own rules based on their needs. The guidance also stresses that researchers remain responsible for AI-assisted work, including its accuracy, citations, authorship and originality.