Universities get wise to cheats

Universities are cracking down on exam cheats with new measures, following an increase in the number of students caught cheating.

Canterbury University spokesman Michael Sykes was unsure whether the increase meant more students were cheating or if the university was getting better at catching them.

Cheating varied, from notes written on hands to text-messaging for answers.

"We're trying to minimise it as best we can," Mr Sykes said.

Canterbury and Lincoln Universities require students to produce photo identification before entering an exam room. Seating is numbered so examiners can check if students have copied the work of nearby classmates.

Three cellphone detecting devices have also been bought, and programmable calculators are not allowed in exam rooms.

The hand-held CellTrac-r device, developed this year by students at St Thomas of Canterbury College in Christchurch for an enterprise competition, will alert supervisors to any students making cellphone calls or receiving text-messages.

Mr Sykes said cheating was more common in stage one commerce subjects than in any others. The university will issue named exam booklets in those exams and check students as they enter against photographs taken earlier in the year.

Lincoln academic services manager Gillian Jordan said a variety of measures had been introduced to thwart cheats.

"It probably is the case that it's on the increase," she said.

"Certainly I think people are more aware that it's not appropriate and we've got to make sure that it's managed. I doubt that we'll ever stamp it out, but we can be ever more vigilant."

Ms Jordan said the university this year set up a working party to review processes for dealing with plagiarism, exam cheats and other dishonesty offences.

With internet access and growing pressure on debt-laden students to get good results, the potential for students to cheat was much greater, she said.

Canterbury research suggests 80 per cent of tertiary students have cheated in the past. The 2002 Christchurch College of Education research project surveyed 381 tertiary students and found 80 per cent admitted cheating, with 63 per cent admitting at least one serious incident of cheating, such as copying from another student during a test.

The findings were in line with overseas studies that have found as many as 86 per cent of students cheat.

- NZPA