More than 6,800 students were disciplined for academic cheating at Canadian universities in 2011-12, indicates a survey done by the public broadcaster, CBC. That represents less than one per cent of total number of students. Yet that appears to be far fewer students disciplined than the number that admit to cheating.
Surveys of students show that more than half admit to having cheated in some form or another at some time. They may have copied multiple choice answers from someone nearby or have bought or plagiarized a term paper.
Some universities may be ‘more vigilant’
One professor does not put too much stock in the statistics. “The data that the CBC has gathered from the different universities varies rather significantly,” says David Harpp a professor of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal. “Some universities report very little (cheating)—big universities like University of Alberta—whereas Carleton (University in Ottawa) reports quite a bit and I think it’s more that they are vigilant about what is taking place.”
Not more cheating, but different
Harpp does not think there is more cheating in Canada than there is in other countries. Canadian universities do not have metal detectors at the entrance to exams to ensure no one brings in an electronic device to help them. Some foreign universities do.
Some Canadian universities have adopted an honour code which requires students who see cheating to report it. McGill University has no such code.
Harpp doesn’t think academic cheating has increased over the years. But its nature may have changed since the internet provides students with much easier access to other people’s material.
McGill eliminates some cheating
Cheating on multiple choice exams at McGill University has been almost eliminated, says Harpp. 25 years ago 2-5 per cent of students cheated on such exams. But the McGill senate mandated a change requiring that several versions be made of each multiple choice exam and that students seated close to each other be given different ones. That has virtually eliminated the problem.
Some universities subscribe to a service which compares term papers with those already existing in vast databanks. Such a service is however expensive and not all students agree to have their papers submitted to and archived in such databanks.
Some professors detect cheating
Alternatively professors who find “an unusually adept” sentence in a term paper may simply Google the phrase and see if it has been taken from something already existing on line.
Ultimately students need to be better informed as to what constitutes plagiarizing and international standards about giving credit for other people’s work, says Harpp. Academics would prefer to think most students don’t willfully cheat, but if they do they are subject to an adjudication process by the administration or the professor.
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