Cambridge First to Refuse to Sign New Turnitin License

In July 2026, the University of Cambridge became the first in the world to refuse to sign a new licensing agreement with Turnitin, whose EULA allowed the use of student work to train AI models, and secured a delay of its release to September 2027.

Compiled by Sergey KostenchukPublished 2026-10-03Updated 2026-10-03

2026-10-03 Safety

🛡 Cambridge First to Refuse to Sign New Turnitin License

In July 2026, the University of Cambridge did not accept the new EULA for the Turnitin plagiarism detection system: it allowed training AI on student work. The university is operating under the old terms until July 2027 and is looking for alternatives, while Turnitin has postponed the release of the new EULA to September 2027.

🌍 A precedent in the EdTech data market: the largest client by brand for the first time rejected the terms of a vendor whose products cover 98% of UK universities. Rights to educational data are becoming a subject of negotiation, not a formality of the EULA.

👤 Turnitin states that it does not train generative models, but acknowledges in its Trust Center: the classifier for detecting AI text is trained on anonymized student work. Universities and students should check what educational service licenses allow.

Source 1: https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/32158

Source 2: https://www.turnitin.com/trust-center

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