Prospective students for a number of degree programmes at Maastricht University are required to undergo a selection procedure first. This usually includes a written element, such as an essay or a letter motivating their reasons for selection. This is often done using AI, said student council member Krithik Rock at a recent committee meeting of the University Council. According to him, this leads to a lot of extra work for the selection committees, because they are forced to use alternative selection methods, such as interviews. The problem was said to be greatest for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), where selection is part of all pre-master’s and master’s programmes, as well as one bachelor’s programme. Rector Pamela Habibović said she was unaware of this issue and promised to look into it. “But I can imagine it does take more time.”
However, when Observant asked about this extra work for FASoS, they said that it was barely an issue. According to vice-dean of education Patrick Bijsmans, the problem was “unnecessarily exaggerated” in the U-Council. It does appear that a number of candidates used AI to write their letter of motivation. “But this is not a surprise; it happens elsewhere, too, even outside higher education.”
The letters are sometimes run through Turnitin – the plagiarism checker used by UM, which can also check for AI – but that is often not even necessary. “The letters are only one part of the process, candidates also have to submit their grades and examples of written assignments from previous degrees.” The people who raise doubts are “on the whole, also weak candidates in other areas, and then they simply get rejected”.
Interviews are being held for the Global Studies bachelor, “to gain a better insight into the candidates. These have proven very useful and the programme is even considering interviewing all candidates in future.”
Elsewhere at UM, there is also no real concern about the use of AI during the selection. For example, the bachelor Medicine, which, with almost a thousand applications a year, is one of the largest selection degrees at UM, requires candidates to submit a substantial homework assignment (study load of about 30 hours) during the first of two selection rounds. “We don’t run them through Turnitin, because you can’t determine the use of AI with 100 per cent accuracy,” said Thijs Compeer, chair of the selection committee Medicine. “There are also other ways to commit fraud anyway, such as getting someone else to do the assignment for you. It’s not something you can prevent, so we have just accepted it.”
It is reassuring that ‘cheating’ is more likely to have a negative effect than a positive one, said Compeer. Just like with FASoS, the assignment is not usually a deciding factor. “In the first round, things like previous education and motivation are more important.” And in the second round, the result of the assignment is not taken into consideration. “However, the candidates have to take a test on location – using our Chromebooks, without internet or ChatGPT – that includes questions which build on the subject of the assignment. If you haven’t been actively involved with the homework assignment yourself, then you will be less able to answer those questions.”