Keeping integrity, humanity, and learning at the heart of the student experience: The 5th annual Prof Tracey Bretag Prize for Academic Integrity.
Professor Tracey Bretag left a lasting legacy, contributing to tertiary education’s growing - and now AI-triggered - interest in the relationship between the T&L environment and student misconduct.
In 2025, educational integrity is on the university risk register. Generative AI offers powerful productivity gains, but productivity runs contrary to the learning process. For HE students, learning requires a cognitive load, and being truly thoughtful is hard work and often feels inefficient. That cognitive workload is essential to the development of core skills and learning, underpinning degree validity and thus the social licence of universities. Whether or not they are intending to bypass the learning process,? general-use AI tools are a convenience that 82% of higher education students report using to as part of completing their degree (YouGov-Studiosity, 2025).
One of Tracey's core findings and points of integrity activism was that academic misconduct is "a symptom, not the problem". Three key reasons for contract cheating (Harper & Bretag et al 2018) now look even more relevant seven years later against the current backdrop of genAI . The risk factors are:
EAL/D students (those whose first language is a language or dialect other than English) - and particularly those from overseas, are amongst those at greatest risk to use gen-AI to bypass learning. And we know from great work by leading researchers across the globe that academic misconduct by students is heavily influenced by their environment, for example:
In this AI era, it's unsurprising that leaders and educators alike see a learner-centric and evidence-based approach as pragmatic - compared with the historical, go-to educational integrity approach of 'mostly detection.' Proving misuse of gen-AI is much harder than giving students access to educational AI that is engineered to provide guidance and feedback to encourage active learning.
2025 marks the fifth year since Tracey endorsed the establishment of this Prize at the invitation of Studiosity Founders, Jack Goodman and Lisa McIntyre . We have been pleased to carry out this commitment made to Tracey, and reflect on what she would make of the last half decade.
Amongst the hundreds of entries that have made the short list, there is a clear generosity amongst educational and academic integrity researchers (dotted with submissions from student groups), who are eager to work across institutional, discipline, or country boundaries. Thank you to the nominees and nominators for your contributions, and with thanks to your referees in leadership for taking the time to endorse your efforts.
Our global Academic Advisory Board - alongside special guest judges - anticipate strong, evidence-based entries again this year. The expectation is that the 2025 short list will acknowledge generative AI as part of the challenge, show evidence of impact, and help answer the question: How can the sector keep educational integrity, humanity, and learning at the heart of the student experience?
Nominations close Friday 16 May: studiosity.com/traceybretagprize
Check Terms and Conditions: Asia-Pacific Prize (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia); Middle East Prize (KSA, UAE); North American Prize (Canada, USA); UK & Ireland Prize.