Professor Phil Newton from the University of Swansea talks through his recent paper: Evidence of Learning Through Assessment. Protecting the Value of a Degree in the Age of AI.

Phil highlights clear and present threats to higher education by the sector’s continued use of online, unsupervised and remote assessments. This, Phil argues, is compromising universities’ ability to properly certify learning, and has the potential to erode the value of a degree.

In this conversation we talk through the six key recommendations put forward in the paper, and how they might realistically be implemented.

We discuss where change can come from, the problem of SOUR assessments, the misaligned incentives in higher education, the loss of confidence from employers, the ethical concerns around placing the burden of trust on to students, how other countries have reacted, the need for training, resource barriers, the information that should be included on degree transcripts, and many other topics.

Phil Newton teaches Neuroscience across a variety of programmes in the School. He also teaches on evidence-based education as part of the Schools online MSc in Medical Education. He came to Swansea in 2009 from the University of California at San Francisco, having completed a Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds (2001) and a B.Sc in Biology at Aberystwyth University. He also holds an M.Sc in Medical Education from Cardiff University (2012).

LinkeIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-phil-newton-21966b8a/ Web - https://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/p.newton/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/newtonsneurosci Scholar - https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=77aJ0IMAAAAJ&view_op=list_works ORCID - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5272-7979 Researchgate - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Phil_Newton/

Newton, P. (2026). Evidence of Learning Through Assessment. Protecting the Value of a Degree in the Age of AI. Policy Exchange. [Online]. Available at: https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/evidence-of-learning-through-assessment/.

Newton, P. M. and Draper, M. J. (2025) ‘Widespread use of summative online unsupervised remote (SOUR) examinations in UK higher education: ethical and quality assurance implications’, Quality in Higher Education, 31(1), pp. 127–141. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2025.2521174