University of Greenwich

Established in 1993, with students representing 140 countries, two Nobel laureates among its alumni, the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019 and a Gold TEF rating in 2023.

Studiosity was introduced by former Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Professor Karen Bryan, who had encountered it at a previous institution. Students were very able but often needed more support with academic writing, particularly where English was not a first language, and tutors were spending a lot of time on the writing aspect of work.

Staff were struggling to mark academic quality through grammatical and referencing issues, and a small, busy academic support team could not meet the scale of the challenge. With the DVC as sponsor, senior academics agreed their departments could be used for a pilot in 2018.

Prof Jane Harrington, Vice-Chancellor: “We were an early adopter of Studiosity and we’re keen to be an early adopter of things as they evolve, because actually we see that as part of our mission really...our student body is very diverse, so it’s very important for us that we have tools that can actually get everyone up to a sort of equal level.”

Greenwich gave 2,000 Faculty of Education, Health and Human Sciences students access over two semesters. 50% accessed the service, uploading 3,350 documents for formative feedback, at 85% overall satisfaction.

In the first month after moving from “Studiosity’s Classic (human delivered) service” to the AI-powered Plus service, one in every two eligible students had participated in formative feedback, with the University’s overall writing performance benchmark visibly above the wider sector and students making fewer errors in every subsequent submission.

The AI-for-Learning platform was switched on for all 28,000 UK students in September 2024, then expanded to all 43,000 students globally in February 2025.

From 1 September to 15 November 2024: 1,526 students used the service, up 39% year on year, uploading 3,397 documents, up 99%. 91% said they got the help they needed, satisfaction was 89%, and 63% sought help out of hours.

By March 2025, across the 28,000 UK cohort, help-seeking had increased 100% and 21% of students, 5,873, had created accounts.

The initiative began in October 2024. Head of Academic and Digital Skills Sharon Perera developed it after Sonya McChristie, Learning Design Manager at the University of Sunderland, presented Sunderland’s ‘Write it Right’ programme at a Studiosity Partner Forum. It is a targeted intervention addressing ethnicity awarding gaps, embedded into the curriculum, assessment policy and Access and Participation Plan.

As of 5 June 2025: 210 students submitted a draft for feedback, 51% of the cohort. Users’ average final mark was 56% against 53% for non-users, and the source reports a statistically significant relationship between submission and achieving a Good Honours degree.

“Thank you again for the amazing service. This is so helpful for people who do not have academic friends or family to help read over work.”

“I feel more confident about my writing and believe i am going in the right direction”

“Helps me get into the correct way of thinking about writing essays”

“The feedback gave me the ability to work on my report for the better.”

“The response is quick it is like a flash of light. the suggestion were good.”

“So quick and thorough! Really impressed with the grammatical suggestions”