A computer science student who won a scholarship to study computing and AI describes loving the challenge despite starting with limited maths and programming experience. Their frustration is directed at a university that has no consistent approach to generative AI: students are sometimes required to use it and elsewhere penalized for doing so. The shifting rules make expectations unclear, while the university has adopted AI for tasks the student considers poorly suited to it, including marking, feedback, course materials, and student emails, sometimes reversing decisions within months.
The student argues that AI-generated coursework briefs are often bloated, insufficiently checked, and riddled with errors corrected close to deadlines. Assignments have also grown far more demanding, with numerous deliverables that leave less experienced students rushing through new material instead of learning it properly. They connect these problems to universities’ desire to expand enrollment and automate support without hiring more staff, leaving tutors and lecturers overstretched; contact can feel reduced to automated alerts about students’ online activity. Amid constant claims that software engineering is dying or that AI use is essential, the student wants room to keep studying computer science and maths for their own sake. They remain interested in both AI and other fields, and hope to return to making small games as they develop their programming skills.
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