Assured Assessment

Ensuring trust in graduate qualifications

In the age of AI, employers need assurance that graduates have genuinely earned their degrees. Assured Assessment™ is an independent certification given to universities that ensure every graduate personally demonstrates every course learning outcome under secure conditions.

The Problem

AI has broken the assessment model

Since the explosion of generative AI in late 2022, students are producing passing-quality assignments, essays, and even exam answers using tools like ChatGPT. The result: degrees that no longer guarantee competence.

96% fell to 49%

The 96% average on a take home exam fell to 49% when the students had to redo it in-person

Brown University, Inside Higher Ed

94%

of full-time undergraduate students in the UK say they use generative AI to help with assessed work

HEPI Student Generative AI Survey 2026

80%

of students estimated by senior academics to be using AI to cheat

Six senior academics in three states, The Australian, Feb 2026

90%+

rate of cheating reported by students themselves in their courses

Student reports, The Australian, Feb 2026

"University is no longer a test of your intellect. It's a test of how well you can instruct ChatGPT."

— Hayden, 24-year-old university student, The Australian, February 2026

"The only way to eliminate AI cheating is to go back to in-person supervised exams, in-class presentations, oral assessments, practical lab assignments and defending of essays."

— Alan Finkel PhD, former Chancellor of Monash University, The Australian, February 2026
The Standard

A clear, verifiable standard for academic integrity

“Secured conditions” requires three guarantees:

  1. Identity – the work is verified to be this student’s
  2. Authorship – the performance is the student’s own
  3. Observation – conditions that make identity and authorship directly verifiable by the assessor
How It Works

A simple path to trusted qualifications

Assured Assessment provides a clear framework that universities can adopt, verify, and promote to students and employers worldwide.

1

University Commits

Universities adopt the Assured Assessment standard.

2

Verification & Certification

Assessment practices are verified against the standard. Upon meeting the criteria, the university, faculty, or individual degree program is awarded the Assured Assessment™ certification mark.

3

Employer Confidence

Graduates from certified programs carry a recognised, international certification mark that declares to future employers that they have earned their credential. Employers can trust that certified graduates have demonstrated genuine knowledge and competency through rigorous, supervised assessment.

Who Benefits

Everyone wins with Assured Assessment

A widely recognised, international certification mark increases graduate employment prospects for students from certified universities.

Universities & Colleges

  • Differentiate your institution with a trusted certification mark
  • Ensure public confidence in the value of your degrees
  • Attract quality students who value genuine learning
  • Lead the global response to AI-driven academic integrity challenges

Employers

  • Hire graduates with verified knowledge and competencies
  • Reduce risk of underqualified hires
  • A widely recognised international certification mark you can trust
  • Look for the Assured Assessment™ mark on graduate credentials
  • Confidence that graduates can perform, not just prompt

Students & Graduates

  • Prove you genuinely earned your degree and possess the knowledge it represents
  • Stand out to employers who are increasingly sceptical of graduate qualifications
  • Know that you are studying at a university that maximizes your learning, helping you reach your potential in life
  • Graduate with verified, real-world competencies that AI cannot replicate
An employer confidently hiring a certified graduate
In the Media

The crisis is real, the conversation is growing

Leading academics, former chancellors, and education regulators are calling for urgent reform. Here is what they are saying.

Inside Higher EdJuly 8, 2026

Brown professor suspects most of his class used AI to cheat

For the first time since he started teaching Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory nearly two decades ago, Brown University economics professor Roberto Serrano gave his students a take-home midterm this spring. When the midterm came along, the average score was 96 percent. With the blessing of his dean, [he] changed the final exam to an in-person test. Three students earned a zero, and the average score on the final was 48.6 percent—by far a historic low, he said.

Inside Higher Ed

The Sydney Morning HeraldMay 26, 2026

I’m an academic, but I’ve told my stepdaughter to think twice about going to university

Industrial-scale fraud is undermining the value of tertiary qualifications. As an academic, I have seen first-hand how Al-enabled cheating has spread, and it has made me question whether a university degree still holds the value it once did.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert

The New York TimesMay 17, 2026

What A.I. did to my college class

Cheating has become omnipresent. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t used A.I. to get through some assignment in college, yet the school was at first slow to realize how widespread this would become. As freshman year went on, some professors suggested that the “nuclear option” might be called for: allowing faculty to proctor in-person exams, a practice banned at the university for over a century to demonstrate “confidence in the honor” of students.

Theo Baker

New York MagazineMay 7, 2026

Rampant AI cheating is ruining education alarmingly fast

Nearly 90 percent of college students had used ChatGPT to help with homework. Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate. We're talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here.

James D. Walsh

The New York TimesMay 1, 2026

AI has students cheating. Classrooms may never be the same.

Between May and December of 2025, the share of American middle school, high school and college students who reported regularly using A.I. for homework increased from 48 to 62 percent, according to polling from RAND — even as two-thirds of students said the technology harmed critical-thinking skills.

The New York Times

UnHerdMarch 12, 2026

How AI will destroy universities

The only pedagogically robust response to LLMs in universities is at least a partial return to traditional methods. Reliance on online coursework has to be reduced; a significant return to paper and pen is required. This is the only way we can guarantee that students are not cheating.

Paul Sagar

The AustralianFebruary 14, 2026

Degrees mean nothing now. I’ve given up on graduates — give me grey hair and war wounds instead

Employers are losing faith in university qualifications as AI-driven cheating undermines the value of degrees. Businesses are increasingly favouring experienced candidates over fresh graduates whose skills and knowledge cannot be verified.

Gemma Tognini

The AustralianFebruary 9, 2026

Stop AI cheating by bringing back in-person exams, unis warned

Two of the nation's most respected former chancellors are urging universities to bring students back to campus for supervised exams and in-person assessments to counter an epidemic of students cheating using artificial intelligence.

Ros Thomas

The Sydney Morning HeraldFebruary 8, 2026

Did AI kill the contract cheater?

Contract cheating companies are resorting to increasingly desperate tactics such as sneaking into lectures, infiltrating group chats, and impersonating professors as generative AI takes over the cheating market from traditional essay mills.

Sally Rawsthorne

The AustralianFebruary 6, 2026

How Australia’s university students are using AI to cheat their way to a degree

Six senior academics in three states estimated 80 per cent of students are using ChatGPT or similar AI engines to cheat assignments, essays and exams, claiming university administrations are failing to crack down on the practice.

Ros Thomas

Frequently Asked Questions

Assured Assessment

Help restore trust and confidence in higher education

Whether you are a university leader, employer, or student, Assured Assessment provides the framework to restore trust in higher education qualifications worldwide.

contact@assuredassessment.org

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