I think I have voiced my concerns on the topic of examinations before but
let me remind everyone as yet another situation seems to be spiralling out
of control.
I worked in the former Soviet Union, setting up a business school, from 1993
to 1998 and cheating by way of plagiarism and blatant examination
malpractice was rife, nay rampant.
We refused to tolerate it but the Soviet system had tolerated it as does, I
was reliably informed by a German Professor, the German university system.
We clamped down and we clamped down hard. We became ruthless by degrees. In
the space of two years we were confident that we had eradicated the problem.
We made it absolutely certain what the rules and regulations re assignments,
examinations, projects and dissertations were. If ever there was a problem
we announced our concerns verbally and in writing and took the appropriate
action. We had external examiners from the LSE and they were brilliant in
their support. We sent students down if the case was sufficiently bad.
We had one particularly annoying student who failed to graduate, who took us
to court but we fought him all the way and won.
We had one student whose English skills were very weak yet and he came to my
office (I was Director of the MBA Programme) to appeal against his English
language failing grade ... and had his interpreter with him!!!
The outcome of all of this? Our programme was assessed as being "One of the
best in the CIS", our graduates got excellent jobs as well as gaining entry
to places such as the LSE, HEC, Princeton as well as many less lofty places
all over the world.
Moreover, many, many students and graduates told us that we were doing the
right things and we were doing them right. That is, the majority of students
wanted to succeed on merit and they felt it was grossly unfair of someone to
perpetuate the old system and gain an unfair advantage.
It must be the same here. Your students will be highly critical of you if
you are weak and are seen to condone all this nonsense with mobile phones,
PDA and so on that we are reading about now.
I think your biggest ally in this fight is your student body: be right, be
strong and use it.
Duncan Williamson
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Reddy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 May 2006 09:28
Subject: Re: Cutting Edge
Anyone else notice the strange similarity between these two sent in
from Abbott and Jane?
> http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/18/technology/web.0518cheat.php
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/education/18cheating.html?
> hp&ex=1148011200&en=d71bdd428e279963&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Was it coincidence? Or did Jane spot that the author had been published
in two places? Either way, I hope he got paid twice.
Have readers in the UK had much of a problem with tech? I did have
someone with a PDA last year. Maybe we don't use computers for exams so
much in this country? I liked the idea of students being used (paid?)
to invigilate at first, but am now not so sure. Would appreciate
hearing of preventative measures taken to prevent techeating
Mike
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