‘Coursework cheating akin to graft’

PETALING JAYA: Cheating in coursework or assignments is fraud, say academicians.
Whether a student is committing the offence or accepting the practice as a norm, academicians from various higher learning institutions generally agree that it is tantamount to a corrupt practice.
University lecturers believe that these students may resort to worse acts of dishonesty in future.
"This is the start of it. This is part of corruption – it is soliciting favours. It is the same thing (as bribing)," Utar Creative Industry Faculty Asst Prof Dr Sharon Wilson told theSun.
She was commenting on theSun's front page on May 4 where we reported on the trend of buying assignments, theses and even research papers, which seems to be on the rise among tertiary students.
"I think it should be made a criminal offence. At the end of the day, the country wants to produce individuals of integrity, but how do we achieve this if you are not nipping this practice in the bud?
"You are paying someone to do something, and money is being exchanged. Then we become a corrupt society. It is all about corruption," Wilson said.
She said the problem was more prevalent among postgraduate students who tended to pursue a programme just for paper qualifications.
She added it was not difficult to identify and spot students who cheated in their coursework or bought assignments as experienced lecturers would know based on the answers they provided and also on their mannerism and body language when they were questioned.
"Students are told about the importance of integrity and even if there is a whiff of plagiarism, they will be kicked out or will not graduate," she said.
She explained that postgraduates would get caught during the viva period when they were not able to maturely defend their work whereas for undergraduates, lecturers would be able to identify the trend by taking note of individual and group assignments.
In the initial stages, she said, the work would go through the plagiarism detecting software and students caught cheating might face disciplinary action like being brought to the institute's tribunal, be failed in the subject or expelled from the institution.
"There must be a mechanism to test the students on their work to ensure that it is their own, like having presentations," she added.
For postgraduates, she said, an ethics committee vetted the research proposed to ensure the topics and information gathering were done ethically.
Wilson urged lecturers not to be in denial of this trend but to be more vigilant when assessing students' work.
Universiti Malaya senior lecturer Dr Sridevi Sriniwass, who has 26 years of experience in teaching, described students resorting to buying assignments as "skilful cheats".
"They are totally dishonest and have no integrity. They have no interest in building knowledge and doing their work honestly. They have no respect for the institution and for others. They have done it before successfully and are skilful cheats.
"When they go to the workforce they will resort to worse acts of dishonesty," she told theSun.
Sridevi is of the view that students should submit their drafts and be graded periodically, which would show work in progress.