"20,000 students caught cheating by universities
Up to 20,000 students were caught cheating at universities last year.
They were found copying, buying essays from the internet and having
exam answers sent to mobile phones. Many lecturers admit thousands more
could be slipping through the net. Universities have been urged to
introduce sophisticated computer software checks, but that still leaves
the hundreds who cheat in exams.
Daily Mail " THES Daily News summary
The full article is available on LexusNexus, but I think that evidence
provided in the piece may be related to reports I have had that
universities were being approached to provide information on plagiarism
cases under the Freedom of Information Act. If true, I think that this
is an interesting first stab at much needed openness on the issue.
Phil Baty (THES) and I discussed the FoI legislation back before it was
law, during the Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle. We both agreed it
would be interesting to see who used it first. I, myself was advised
that it would be better not to invoke the Act in requests I made to
institutions, in the first instance, which I considered good advice,
because good will and openness would be key indicators of a healthy
attitude to the problem. The research in the Mail does seem to be a bit
more sensationalist:
The headline reads:
"20,000 STUDENTS CAUGHT CHEATING BY UNIVERSITIES"
The first line reads:
"UP to 20,000 students were caught cheating at universities last year."
Note the "up to" which is based on the following, not too unreasonable
extrapolation:
" The figures are based on data obtained by the Daily Mail from 64
universities in the UK. It showed 6,672 students were found cheating in
coursework last year, together with another 518 during exams. If the
pattern was repeated across Britain's 170 higher education
institutions, it would represent more than 19,000 cheats."
64 of 170 is a reasonable sample of 'more than 37%' (sic), although
clumping coursework and exam infringements together seems rather
artificial to me. Taking aside the fact that there may be a small
number of cases where the same people were involved, this figure does
seem alarming, although short of the 20,000 claimed in the headline.
What annoys me is the following:
"Many lecturers admit thousands more could be slipping through the net."
and
" But a lecturer from the North-West said: 'It is very difficult to
detect just how much cheating goes on in assessment work.
'I suspect that a lot of students are doing it and getting away with
it. It is considered a real problem.'"
Where are the facts here? Who are these lecturers? Why are there no
statistics here? I cannot believe that this could have been a question
on the survey. How and why would anyone answer this accurately? I
wonder who Mr North West is?
"To weed them out, universities have been urged to introduce
sophisticated computer software to carry out checks. But that still
leaves the hundreds who cheated in exams. They had crib notes hidden in
clothing, scratched on stationery and written on hands and arms. Some
even got others to sit tests for them."
Exam cheating is hardly new. Is the argument that we should abandon
examinations because there is no "sophisticated computer software to
carry out checks"? Lecturers work very hard to prevent opportunities
for cheating in exams and my personal experience has been that the
effort involved in invigulating exams has increased; I would be stunned
if mobile phones were not banned under university regulations in all
170 institutions. And many (see, it is easy to write authoritatively
with the word 'many') lecturers advocate exams as a way to avoid
'cheating' opportunities that courseworks provide.
"Figures also reveal that only 95 of the students caught were thrown
out."
[followed by much naming of names...]
Has the lovely ring of absolutism, doesn't it? Clearly, we are not
being bloody enough in our public executions. I hope this article
serves as a benchmark that future journalists will strive to improve
upon.
What it should be commended for, rhetoric aside, is starting the
inevitable unpeeling of universities assessment, if not educational,
practices because the more we discuss these issues the more likely
institutions are to investigate the root causes, and to update
assessment to value the use of knowledge, rather than the mere
acquisition of knowledge. The latter may have been representative of
student abilities 20 years ago, but a click now can do a week's work
when I was a student, if all we are doing is gauging access to
information instead of understanding.
Oh, and using my calculator, I got 19098.4375 potential offenders, if
the results for 64 map linearly to 170 institutions. Why was the
headline not 'More than 19,000 students...' instead of the actual:
"20,000 STUDENTS CAUGHT CHEATING BY UNIVERSITIES"
Answers on a postcard to [log in to unmask]
This message is also available on my plagiarism blog for 1st August
2005. If you want to hear others, and they are intermittent, then go to
http://poddingalong.jones-reddy.org/ and follow links for the PlagBlog
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