Academic integrity crisis: Moldova lacks tools to verify student AI papers
Nearly 30% of Moldova students utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to produce their academic papers, yet the state currently lacks a centralized, national mechanism for detecting AI plagiarism.
This critical issue was highlighted by Minister of Education, Dan Perciun, in a recent public statement.
According to the Minister, existing anti-plagiarism software cannot reliably identify academic theses written with the help of AI. Furthermore, universities currently use varied verification tools on a case-by-case basis, making the systematic enforcement of academic integrity extremely difficult.
"In all universities, both students and professors acknowledge this widespread use," Minister Perciun stated. "What we propose is to either develop or contract the services of a national plagiarism software. This system would function as a central depository for all bachelor's theses in the country, providing the unified standard we currently lack."
The Minister stressed the systemic need: "It is important to have clear standards for what plagiarism means, to have standards for the tools that detect it, and to do this systematically." He confirmed that under Moldova's commitments to the European Union and the European-backed Growth Plan—which provides access to EU funding—resources have been reserved to either develop this national software or contract services from a Romanian or international company.
The Minister also confirmed that AI use in higher education will be a key topic at the upcoming Conference dedicated to academic integrity at the end of December.
The use of AI in academia presents increasing challenges across Europe, not just in Moldova. While some EU institutions have adopted clear guidelines for using AI as an educational support tool, others have chosen strict rules to limit it.
The overall lack of unified national standards and high-performance verification systems makes it difficult to distinguish between the legitimate use of technology and the violation of academic integrity principles.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
