900 university cheats busted
From: By Paula Beauchamp
January 10, 2006
HUNDREDS of students have been expelled, suspended or punished at Victorian universities for cheating and academic rorting.
A Herald Sun investigation has found such cheating is rife – at least 962 students have been caught in two years.
Among those punished were would-be lawyers and medical professionals training at the state's top universities.
The economics, business and commerce faculties at Melbourne and Monash universities recorded the highest number of student cheats.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation show scores of students were kicked out of courses while others were fined up to $500 or suspended for up to five years.
Hundreds more were investigated but not punished.
The documents, released by eight Victorian universities, show at least 962 students were penalised for cheating between 2003 and mid-2005.
The total is believed to be much higher, but not all university records were seen by the Herald Sun.
Academics say the internet has made cheating easier. Anecdotal evidence from lecturers suggests plagiarism is rising.
"Our members are concerned about the whole issue of the academic integrity of work submitted by students," National Tertiary Education Union spokesman Paul Kniest said. "The internet has definitely added to that."
Students caught cheating in exams had attempted to sneak in calculators, hide notes, store information on erasers or stick it on rulers.
The documents also reveal:
A MELBOURNE University architecture student was expelled after cheating in two exams.
A STUDENT from Melbourne University's medical faculty was also expelled for cheating.
TWO Monash students who cheated in business exams by smuggling in notes and a book are due back at uni this year after two-year suspensions.
A CHEATING student from Victoria University was banned from re-enrolling in any course at the university for at least five years.
A SWINBURNE University student submitted an assignment that belonged to another student.
A GROUP of eight design students at Swinburne's Prahran campus were penalised for copying a journal and part of an assignment.
A number of students were also penalised for falsifying academic results and forging academics' signatures.
Mr Kniest said most universities had introduced anti-plagiarism software and some had made its use compulsory.
Licences to use the most popular anti-plagiarism software, Turnitin, have been bought by at least 25 Australian universities to try to catch students who fail to cite references for information cut and pasted from the internet.
A University of Melbourne Turnitin study found plagiarism fell by half over two semesters when detection software was used.
Up to 11 per cent of students in the classes screened were found to have plagiarised part of their work.
However the study urged caution because its findings were based on a small number of classes and limited data.
National Union of Students president Rose Jackson said it should be remembered that the vast majority of students did not cheat.
"Most who plagiarise are found to have done so unwittingly or through ignorance, particularly in the case of international students," Ms Jackson said.
She said that time pressures on students – who now worked longer hours to meet university costs – could lead to referencing mistakes or encourage them to take the easy route.
"We hear some students say, 'I know I did it, but I didn't have a real choice'," she said.
"It was either skip work, hand the assignment in late or just hand it in with an incomplete bibliography and hope they don't notice."
Ms Jackson said it would be foolish to deny that the internet had made it easier to plagiarise.
"There is no doubting it," she said.
