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Sections in this issue outline (in order):
1. What they said. 2 The issue at a glance. 3 Background. 4 Internet information links. 5 and 6 Arguments for / against. 7 Further implications on this issue. 8 Newspaper items used in the compilation of the outline.
Should more be done to curb cheating among senior secondary and tertiary students?
What they said ...
'Cheating stabs at the heart of academic behaviour. We take it very seriously'
Ms Sue Jellett, RMIT's Academic Registrar
'Why the surprise at the behaviour of students who are cheating in their academic studies? Universities in some ways seem to encourage such behaviour'
Kieran Gill, Glen Waverley
The issue at a glance
Students cheating during VCE exams and while completing tertiary studies became an issue in the media in December 2002 and January 2003.
On December 6, 2002, it was reported that as many as 70 VCE students may have had advance access to a number of exam papers. An official inquiry was launched to determine the extent of the cheating and how it may have occurred.
On January 7, 2003, it was reported that a high percentage of students surveyed at Monash University and Swinburne University had admitted cheating. Two days later it was reported that an RMIT student had been caught having paid his tutor to sit an exam for him. The Institute had allowed him to continue his degree and he had received a good behaviour bond and a relatively small fine.
These incidents have led to calls for stronger action to be taken against cheats within both secondary schools and tertiary institutions. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the tertiary institutions concerned have argued that their procedures are adequate.
Background
A higher number of infringements of the examination code as well as instances of cheating was reported at the end of 2002 than had been the case the year before. Terri Hopkins, VCAA's manager of corporate governance has suggested that this increase in reports may be due to the success to a review of examination procedures that was conducted prior to last year's exams. Stronger enforcement procedures were implemented and exam supervisors were given more training, which meant they were better aware of the rules they were to enforce.
The situation within tertiary institutions appears less encouraging. Some 80 percent of 7000 Monash and Swinburne University students admitted to some form of cheating. Those seeking to minimise the problem argue that the survey had too elastic a definition of cheating. Others have argued that these results suggest cheating is endemic within tertiary institutions and may in fact have been promoted by the more corporate ethos that some institutions have been required to adopt in response to funding shortfalls.
Internet Information
The Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) has issued two media releases relating to the early access a ring of students appeared to have to exam papers in a number of subjects.
On November 19, 2002, the Authority released a statement titled, 'VCAA investigates possible security breach'. The statement includes comments from the VCAA chief executive officer, Ms Susan Pascoe.
It can be found at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/publications/media/Docs_2002/media_19-1-02.htm
On December 6, 2002, the Authority released a statement indicating that despite the investigation of a security breach, students' VCE results would be released according to schedule. This statement can be found at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/publications/media/Docs_2002/exam_breach_update.htm
(Please note, as these are press releases they are likely to be removed from the Authority's site as other more current issues are addressed.)
The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has issued a number of media releases in response to the case of the information technology student who paid his tutor to sit an exam for him.
The first was issued on January 8, 20039, 2003. It is titled, 'Student misconduct'. It is a general statement about RMIT's attitude to student cheating and outlines the broad procedures the Institute has in place to prevent cheating.
http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Media%2FNews%2FMedia%20Releases?SIMID=au3xg1awehar&STATUS=A
The second media release was issued on January 9, 2003. It is titled, 'RMIT University action on cheating'.
It is essentially the comments of RMIT's Academic Registrar, Sue Jellett. It is an attempt to reassure students and the general public that the Institute has appropriate procedures in place to deal with and discourage cheating.
The media release can be found at http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Media%2FNews%2FMedia%20Releases?SIMID=xgvyg3ksyicr&STATUS=A
(Please note, as these are press releases they are likely to be removed from RMIT's site as other more current issues are addressed.)
Arguments against the introduction of additional measures to discourage cheating among students
1. Penalties imposed for cheating are already sufficient
It is claimed there are already significant penalties imposed upon senior secondary and tertiary students who are found to have cheated. At RMIT when a student is discovered to have cheated he or she is normally deemed to have failed the subject concerned. RMIT's academic registrar, Ms Sue Jellett, has stated, 'Practice is that where a student has cheated then failure is the consequence.'
Even more significant consequences face those who break the law in the course of cheating. A private tutor, Mr Chin Chung, is due to appear in Melbourne Magistrate's Court after having pleaded guilty to the charge of making a false document. Mr Chung made the false document when sitting a first year RMIT computer science exam on behalf of one of the students he tutored.
Similar penalties can be applied to VCE students found to have cheated. Studnets face a range of penalties from downgrading of their marks, through deletion of their subject score through to cancellation of their whole certificate.
Where a major security breach has occurred with the intention of allowing some students to cheat in the VCE examinations, those responsible for the breach can be jailed. The names of those found to have behaved in this way are handed to the police who may press fraud charges.
2. Many institutions have already taken substantial steps to reduce the incidence of cheating
RMIT has introduced electronic detection and photographic identification to make it difficult for students to have another person sit an exam on their behalf. Professor Loane Skene, the vice-president of Melbourne University's academic board, has claimed that the university has increased its vigilance against plagiarism and cheating.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority conducted an examination review in 2002 that resulted in a stronger enforcement of rules, such as stricter limitations on not allowing mobile phones into exams. The review also resulted in more training for supervisors, which raised their awareness of exam rules. The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board has a variety of procedures in place to detect cheating. For example, where there are major differences between midyear results and students' performances in the end of year examinations, the exam papers are scrutinised.
Any school whose students are found to have cheated may have its right to conduct exams removed. In 2002, students at two schools were found to have seen advance copies of some papers; as a result both were stripped of their right to conduct VCE examinations in 2003. Ms Terri Hopkins, the corporate governance manager for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has stated, 'When investigating their exam procedures, we found they were not up to our requirements.'
3. The extent of cheating among students has been over-stated
It has been claimed that some of the recent surveys supposedly indicating a high incidence of cheating among Australian tertiary students have used very broad definitions of cheating. This, it has been suggested, has had the effect of exaggerating the extent of the practice.
This point was made in an editorial published in The Age on January 10, 2003. The editorial states, 'It would be a mistake to label four out of five students as blatant cheats: the surveys' catch-all definitions of cheating range from the trivial to the egregious.'
It has been noted that the more extreme forms of cheating or dishonest conduct among students are uncommon. Ms Emily Anderson, 'the acting president of RMIT's student union has stated, 'Cases of substitutes sitting exams are rare.'
A survey of Monash and Swinburne University information technology, business and psychology students released in January, 2003, indicated that less than three percent of the students undertaking this course had hired someone to take an exam for them.
Though the incidence of students cheating at the VCE appears to have increased in 2002, the total number of students involved is still very small. Almost 50,000 students sat their VCE last year. In that number of candidates there were only 45 found to have cheated in their exams.
4. The incidence of cheating does not appear to have grown worse
It has been claimed that especially at a tertiary there has been little or no increase in student cheating in the last forty years. Monash lecturer, Dick Martin, who was one of those who conducted the recent cheating survey of Monash and Swinburne University information technology, business and psychology students has stated that a growing perception among academics in Australia and overseas that cheating is on the rise may not be accurate. 'There's been surveys done in the '60s and they all expose the same level of cheating.'
5. Punishments for cheating need to be proportionate to the nature of the individual offence
Of the 28 students who went before the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority's annual disciplinary committee, 25 were found guilty. The punishments for the 25 students ranged from formal reprimands to loss of exam grades. Defenders of the current system argue that penalties need to take into account the nature of the exam breach. For example, talking with another student during an exam or even using a mobile phone is a significantly less serious offence than having another person sit an exam on your behalf. A good deal also depends on the nature of the communication between the examinee and the other person and the frequency or length of such communication. According to this line of argument, the strictest possible penalty, cancellation of a student's whole certificate, should be reserved for those cases where the cheating has been established to be severe and general, that is, across all subjects for which the student has sat.
Arguments supporting the introduction of additional measures to discourage cheating among students
1. There is a significant incidence of cheating among students
Schools and exam supervisors reported 57 cases of alleged cheating and exam breaches in 2002. Of these, 28 students had their exam results held over while their conduct was investigated. Of this 28, 25 were found guilty, while an additional 20 students were found guilty of cheating after a special hearing into leaked examination papers. It was found that one pupil arranged for another person to sit a test on their behalf. Other students smuggled notes into exams or copied work from nearby students. Some attempted to use mobile phones during their exam.
The problem would appear to be more severe among tertiary. A recent survey of 700 students from Monash and Swinburne Universities had 79 percent of undergraduates admitting to having cheated. 46.8 percent collaborated with other students on individual assignments. 28.7 percent resubmitted assignments of previous students. 18.9 percent plagiarised material from the Internet and nearly three percent hired someone else to sit an exam for them.
2. The incidence of cheating among students appears to be increasing
The number of VCE students caught cheating in exams almost doubled in 2002. Education department figures show that 28 students' results from government and non-government schools were questioned by the annual discipline committee after the 2002 examinations, compared to 15 in 2001. ((This figure does not include those students involved in the well-publicised leaked exam paper affair).
3. Many of the current penalties for cheating are inadequate
It has been claimed that many of the penalties given out for cheating are insufficient. For example, there are those who believe that any incident of cheating or breach of exam code should warrant more than a reprimand, this being one of the punishment options available to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
It has further been claimed that tertiary institutions are even more lenient in their treatment of students who cheat. This claim was made after RMIT allowed a student who had been caught cheating to continue his degree. The student had hired his tutor to sit an exam on his behalf. The young man's case was heard before a magistrate who gave him a 12-month good behaviour bond and fined him $250. the magistrate noted, 'If RMIT was prepared to overlook it the courts can give him an opportunity.'
Those who are critical of the young man's treatment consider both RMIT's and the court's response to have been inadequate. It has been noted that the student caught cheating had already paid his tutor $800 to sit the exam for him and that this makes the $250 fine seem particularly insufficient.
The Herald Sun in its editorial of January 10, 2003, claimed, 'The adage "cheats never prosper" needs a rethink in Victoria today. How else should one react to the news that a university student who paid a tutor to sit an exam for him has got off scot free?'
4. There is no justification for students cheating
It has been claimed that many of the supposed extenuating circumstances used to excuse cheating among students are simply not valid. The RMIT student who paid someone to sit an exam for him was partially excused on the grounds that he was afraid of failing. He was an overseas student who parents had paid large sums of money to send him to Australia to study, the prospect of letting them down is said to have been more than he could bear.
There are many who have not been convinced by such supposed justifications of cheating. Sam Jackson, a student who wrote to The Herald Sun on January 10, 2003, noted, 'There are many who find it hard to get through school, but we don't cheat. We take the results we get and if we fail we ask for help or we can ask for special consideration.
The RMIT student reportedly could not face the prospect of failure but everyone is going to fail at some stage in his or her life. It is the way you get back up from that failure that matters.'
5. There are systemic problems within our education centres that encourage or facilitate cheating
It has been claimed that cheating needs to be addressed at a wider level than simply that of imposing penalties on those who cheat. There are those who suggest that there are systemic problems within our schools and universities which either encouraging cheating or make it easier to get away with.
Alice Tay, the professor of jurisprudence at the University of Sydney, has claimed that conditions within Australian universities has reduced scholarship and encouraged cheating. She has pointed to higher student staff ratios and competition for fee-paying students. Professor Tay stated, 'So it's quite understandable that standards have dropped because academics just cannot give the time to quality teaching or quality examining.'
The implication appears to be that tertiary staff are over-worked to the point where they find it difficult to assess student work with the sort of rigor that would discourage cheating. There is even the suggestion that universities may be increasingly seeing students as fee-paying units and so may in fact be prepared to turn a blind eye to a certain level of student dishonesty in the name of retaining student fees.
There are those who argue that the practice of accepting fee-paying students whose academic performance is lower than that of non-fee paying students encourages the view that universities are commercial centres generating qualifications rather than places or scholarship and learning.
Further implications
The results of the survey conducted among 7000 Monash and Swinburne University students are disturbing. Though the most extreme form of cheating, having someone else take an exam for you, is very rare, plagiarism appears to be extremely common. Such practices would appear very likely to diminish the value of the work undertaken by our tertiary students and may reduce the real value of the degrees they receive. As a society, we do not want graduates who only appear to know what their qualifications suggest they have mastered. We also need ethical people assuming positions of responsibility in commerce, the law, the public service, medicine and education. Those who have achieved their grades by dishonesty may be no more scrupulous when they become, as they are likely to do, professional people holding down responsible positions.
The growing emphasis on generating funds that has become a feature of our universities may make it difficult for them to be as academically rigorous as they once were.
However, if these same universities hope to market themselves in the Asia-Pacific region as supplies of solid degrees then they must maintain the credibility of academic procedures.
With regard to secondary schools, the situation appears much more hopeful. Very few secondary students appear to cheat through their end of year exams. It would, however, be interesting to have a study conducted into the new SAC system which was hoped to remove the cheating which it was claimed was a feature of the CAT-based system.
Sources
The Age
7/12/02 page 12 news item by Roslyn Guy and Angela O'Connor, 'Schools to track down network of test cheats'
14/12/02 page 3 news item by Amanda Dunn, 'More to face VCE cheats inquiry'
21/12/02 page 1 news item by Murray Mottram, 'VCE cheating cases may go to court'
3/1/03 page 11 comment by Simon Castles, 'VCE cheats: top of the class in the real world'
5/1/03 page 4 news item by Erica Cervini, 'Increase in cheats tests watchdog'
7/1/03 page 1 news item by Julie Szego, 'Shock finding on uni cheating'
8/1/03 page 10 letter from Kieran Gill, 'Cheating starts with the chequebook'
8/1/03 page 10 letter from John Leonard. 'Slack teachers make it easy for would-be cheats'
9/1/02 page 3 news item by Selma Milovanovic, 'RMIT student gets bond on exam cheating charge'
10/1/03 page 10 editorial, 'A creeping tolerance of degrees of cheating
The Australian
9/1/03 page 3 news item by Jane Richardson and Dorothy Illing, 'Outgoing academic in swipe at uni business'
The Herald Sun
6/12/02 page 1 news item by Ian Royall, 'Ring of VCE cheats'
7/12/02 page 9 news item by Ian Royall and Fay Burstin, 'Cheats' phones check'
9/12/02 page 18 editorial, 'Strict test'
9/1/03 page 1 news item by Elissa Hunt, 'Uni cheat gets off'
9/1/03 page 19 cartoon by Mark Knight
10/1/03 page 2 news item by Nick Papps, 'Cheat's exam stand-in charged'
10/1/03 page 16 letter from Sam Jackson, 'Fear no excuse for cheating'
10/1/03 page 18 editorial, 'Make the cheats pay'