Cheaters get away with it

– It is discouraging to hear that so many students admit that they have cheated, says Monica Bakken, study manager at the University of Oslo (UiO).

Five percent of Norwegian students admit to have cheated on an exam, according to a survey carried out by Sentio for Universtias. This means that about 1400 of UiO´s 14 000 students have cheated at some point.

Last week Universitas published an article about «Petra», who claimed to have cheated on at least one exam a semester. The article also claimed that less and less students who cheat get caught on it. Numbers from the university´s complaints board show that only a number between 15 and 30 students a year have been caught cheating since 2004, in total 132 students in six years. These numbers mean that nine out of ten students get away

with cheating.

Large focus on cheating at the university

Bakken thinks there is an increasing trend in making shortcuts in society on a whole, not only in the educational sector.

– Cheating is the subject I have been interviewed on the most the last two years, says Bakken.

She says that the university works hard on supervision, both through electronic anti-plagiarism tools in the exam halls, and with work that creates an attitude towards cheating. Also proper use of sources is important to teach new students. Many students who come to university straight from upper secondary school do not know what is considered cheating, says Bakken

– We have to have a continuing focus on cheating, and we need to intensify the attitude work and the supervision. We have to keep the high pressure. Especially important is to escalate the use of anti-plagiarism tools.

Ministry of Education and Research not worried

The State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Research (KD) Kyrre Lekve says that the ministry does not consider cheating in the educational sector a big problem.

– There are large differences of degree when it comes to what people consider as cheating. Improvements can definitely be done, but it is impossible to catch all the cheaters, says Lekve.

He thinks today´s methods for preventing cheating are sufficient.

– In the end it will be the students´ morals that are decisive, whichever mechanisms we choose to initiate. The larger picture shows that 95 percent of students do not cheat, says Lekve.

Student representatives upset

Leader of the Student Council at the Faculty of Social Sciences (SV) Knut Ulsrud thinks the numbers show that the routines for supervision are insufficient.

– The system is obviously inadequate when it comes to show that so many students get away with cheating, says Ulsrud.

At the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences leader of the Student Council Ingunn Sandberg agrees with Ulsrud.

– It is a terrible thing if these numbers mirror the truth, says Sandberg.

Ulsrud is also displeased about the supervision during the written exams at SV. -Better training and observation of the exam guards will be necessary, he says.

– The faculties have to take responsibility

Study manager Bakken thinks the quality of the supervision in the exam halls is generally sufficient, but she also says that the supervision done by the exams guards varies from faculty to faculty.

– During a written exam there is a lot of supervision going on. Even the restrooms are checked for cheat sheets before, during and after the exams, she says. But each faculty has the responsibility for their exam guards.

Department manager at the faculty administration at the Faculty of Social Sciences Tone Vold-Johansen considers their exam guards competent.

– We make specific demands to the exam guards we use. They have to go through a strict interview, and they need to be quick and active, she says.

Spoke in the restrooms

However, professor Trond Nordby of the Department of Political Science confirms that the exams guards sometimes fail to do their job properly. He says that he once caught two students cheating in the restrooms in the Frederikke building.

– There were two students speaking loudly inside a cubicle. I told the exam guards standing outside the restrooms, but it didn´t seem like they cared, he says.

– But other than that I haven´t really noticed cheating among the students, even though I have been an examiner for years, says Nordby.

He does however say that he does not really use the anti-plagiarism tools that are available at the university.

– I haven´t really felt the need for it.

Worse in the rest of the country

At the other large Norwegian universities less students are caught cheating than at UiO. During the last six years the University of Bergen and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have in total caught 142 students cheating. In other words the number is equal to the number of cheaters UiO has caught during these years.

Kyrre Lekve still thinks the institutions do a good job.

– I think the initiated work will show good results in the times to come, he says.

Monica Bakken also thinks they cannot do much more than what is already being done.

– We do what we can do, she says,

The liberals cheat the most

In the concerned parties´ youth organizations, these number are astonishing. Their members do not think there is any reason to believe that their respective parent parties attract specifically dishonest people.

– This highly surprises me. Our party values law and order, says leader of The Progress Party´s youth group, Ove Vanebo.

On out of ten students who vote the Liberal Party cheats, and when it comes to The Progress Party, the numbers are even higher, according to the Sentio survey. Among most of the other parties the number of cheating students who vote for them are between zero and three percent.

– Both the Liberal Party and the Progress Party values freedom for the individual, but that does not mean a freedom to cheat, says Vanebo.

Leader of the Young Liberals of Norway Anne Solsvik finds it sad that their voters cheat more than others.

– I don´t really know what to say. It is unfortunate, she says.