University cheats exposed in Kent
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by Martin Jefferies
Hundreds of university students in Kent are caught cheating in
their coursework and exams every year.
Figures obtained by KentOnline show there were 712 offences
in 2010/11 – a rise of around 15% in two years.
Many students were found out after downloading essays from
websites, some of which charge less than £5 a month for unlimited
access.
Others were caught paying ghost writers, who charge as much as
£35 per page for a degree-level assignment - and even promise
first-class grades.
In total, 18 students were caught cheating in their exams last
year.
Offences included sneaking iPods, mobile phones and notes into
the exam hall and leaving the room without permission.
At the University of Kent, which has campuses in Canterbury,
Medway and Tonbridge, 558 students were pulled up for coursework
offences during the last academic year.
That compares to 94 at Canterbury Christ Church University,
which has students in Canterbury, Broadstairs, Folkestone and
Medway, and 15 at the University of Greenwich's Medway
campus.
There were 27 offences at the University for the Creative Arts'
Canterbury, Maidstone and Rochester campuses and none at Canterbury
College.
Most offences were not serious enough to warrant students being
expelled from their course, although 10 have been dismissed in the
past three years, including two for 'gross academic misconduct' and
one for repeated plagiarism.
A University of Greenwich spokesman said: "These figures
show we take a robust approach to any academic offences, including
plagiarism, not correctly acknowledging sources and other offences
in examinations.
"Staff are highly vigilant in relation to cheating and students
have a thorough briefing when they join Greenwich. The university
also uses a variety of sophisticated computer software that can,
for example, detect matches between students' work and articles on
the internet."
A University for the Creative Arts spokesman said:
"Academic misconduct is an issue we take very seriously and we have
robust processes in place to handle this."
The University of Kent declined to comment and no response was
received from Canterbury Christ Church University.
Thursday, February 02 2012
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