Does Imperial College London use AI detection? Not routinely
Short answer
Not routinely. Imperial College London holds the capability but does not run it as standard, so most submissions generate no AI score.
Module rules on permitted AI use still apply either way, and a detector score is never the whole case — the university’s own statement and what it means for you are below.
What Imperial College London has said
Not used routinely. Its published FOI information states Imperial holds the Turnitin capability but "We are not currently using this capability University-wide, but use whatever technical tool we deem appropriate as evidence in cases of suspected academic misconduct."
Source (May 2025): Frequently requested information
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What this means if you study here
Imperial's published FOI response is the most precisely-worded entry in the tracker: it holds the Turnitin capability but is 'not currently using this capability University-wide' — while reserving the right to 'use whatever technical tool we deem appropriate as evidence in cases of suspected academic misconduct'. Not routine, not renounced.
Read both halves: day-to-day submissions aren't AI-scored, but in an investigation Imperial explicitly keeps its options open. That makes process evidence doubly important here — it is the material that answers any tool's output.
Turnitin at Imperial College London
Imperial College London says AI-detection tools are not relied on, so a Turnitin AI score should not decide anything about your work here. Similarity checking is a separate feature and remains the sector norm — assume source matching still runs on submissions.
How the AI writing report behaves wherever it is enabled — the 300-word minimum, the 1–19% asterisk band, and why the score is never proof on its own — is covered in does Turnitin detect AI?
Before you submit, anywhere
- Policies change and are re-verified here quarterly — the university’s linked statement above is always the authority, and your module brief overrides everything.
- Whatever the institutional toggle, keep your drafts and version history: process evidence decides disputes, not scores.
- No third-party tool predicts a Turnitin result — here is why. Use checks to understand your own writing, not to chase a number.
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