How To Get Away with Cheating

In India, examination papers can be traded, much like government secrets. You just have to know the right names in the business - and be prepared to pay the price.

 

The NEET-UG paper leak is the latest red mark in the country’s scam tainted exam verse. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET (UG), formerly the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), is an Indian nationwide entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission in undergraduate medical programs. It is one of the most important examinations in India.

 

To say paper leaks are a common occurrence in India would probably be an understatement. There are a couple every year or so. Important exams such as the Indian Army’s Common Entrance Examination, the Central Teachers’ Eligibility Test (CTET) 2023, and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains 2021 have all been subject to leaks. According to India Today, there have been 65 paper leaks in India since 2019.

 

The kingpin of the recent NEET-UG is behind bars and accomplices are being nabbed one by one in what seems to be straight out of the pages of a crime thriller. There are reports of the examination papers being stolen from a trunk.  

 

Wouldn’t it have been better if all these sophisticated investigation techniques to catch the perpetrators were put to use before the examinations were planned and conducted? Considering leaks are common, we should have been able to come up with a foolproof system by now. The Indian Institutes of Management were able to do it after the Common Admission Test leak in 2003.

 

How long till another mastermind is created and another leak springs forth? There have been cries for a complete overhaul of the examination framework and switching to an online format. But online examinations are not without their share of glitches. Plus there is ChatGPT and an entire army cyber criminals to worry about.  In a country where 45 per cent do not access the internet (IAMAI-Kantar study, 2023), online exams would put the sizeable rural population at a disadvantage yet again.

 

What then is the solution? Tackle the rot, dismantle the framework and put proper safeguards in place? Or lie low for a while till the current outrage becomes yesterday’s news and wait for the next leak?

New academic strategy for scam-tainted university

TROUBLED times ahead for UK’s higher education sector?

With University of Wales, the country’s second largest university (70,000 students studying its courses in 130 colleges around the world), mired in a “cash for certificates” scam, the spotlight is, once again, on academic integrity.

There is much outrage in UK’s academic fraternity over this incident. Vice-chancellors of five Welsh universities (Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Bangor, Glamorgan and Swansea) have called for the university to be wound up following a BBC Wales programme last week that showed a reporter posing as a student arranging to pay for bogus qualifications at a London college validated by the University of Wales. The reporter was seen paying £1,500 (US$2,300) in cash for a certificate. The programme followed an earlier probe into the university's links with dubious overseas colleges in Malaysia and Thailand.

The University of Wales has since announced a new academic strategy, which will see the institution only award degrees to students on courses designed and fully controlled by the University.

The transformed University will cease to be an accrediting body for other universities in Wales. It will instigate discussions with these universities to withdraw from awarding degrees to their students. The University will also bring to a close validated programmes offered at centres in the UK and overseas and introduce a new academic model.

Professor Medwin Hughes, Vice-Chancellor, University of Wales said, “In light of HE policy changes in Wales and the creation of a transformed University of Wales, we believe the time is right for us to adopt a new academic strategy and only award University of Wales degrees to students on courses designed and fully controlled by the University of Wales. We are therefore proposing to bring the current validation model to a close.”

"We have a duty of care to all students on existing programmes and will honour our current commitments to them. However, from next year, all Universities in Wales will either have to use their own degree awarding powers or make other arrangements for the courses they run both locally and on a transnational basis.

"And our own international collaboration will now be based solely on courses designed and fully controlled by the University of Wales, embedded in our Faculties and led by our own academic staff. We remain committed to a global role and believe it can serve Wales well.”