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Year 12 students in New South Wales will be limited to just one take-home assessment worth no more than 15% of the school-based assessment mark for each HSC course, under new rules to combat the use of AI announced this morning.

School-based assessment is worth 50% of a student’s HSC result, meaning the sole take-home assessment would only be worth 7.5% of the total HSC mark under the changes. The plan comes after the state’s minister for education, Prue Car , asked the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to look at measures to protect student learning.

Right now, schools can determine how much of that 50% school assessment is given through take-home tasks. Schools will still be able to use a range of assessment types for each course, including exams, oral tasks and process diaries, but the take-home component will be dramatically reduced in value.

HSC major works are not included in the restrictions, but schools will still be required to authenticate the work.

The limit will apply to students in the class of 2027 beginning HSC studies in term 4 this year, and to students beginning year 11 in term 1, 2027.

double quotation mark The message this sends to schools and communities more broadly is that we are committed to protecting the teaching and learning happening in schools.

When students outsource their learning – whether that is to tutors, classmates or artificial intelligence, they are missing out on the rigorous, high-quality education they need to set themselves up for the future.