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Caution urged against over-stating ‘cheating scandal’

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Mon May 13 2013 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Caution urged against over-stating ‘cheating scandal’

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations Monday, 13 May 2013, 6:49 pm
Press Release: NZUSA

Caution urged against over-stating ‘cheating scandal’

There is a risk that the exposure of an exploitative firm selling ghost written assignments targeted at international students is being over-exaggerated, says the NZ Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

“NZUSA does not in any way dismiss the seriousness of cheating, but as stated in news reports at the weekend the scale of this particular form of cheating has yet to be proved,” says Pete Hodkinson, NZUSA President.

“We would strongly advise against rushing to prejudge the extent of the cheating prematurely.

“We do share Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce’s concern that key agencies such as the NZQA and Tertiary Education Commission appear to have dropped the ball when it comes to taking sufficiently swift action to alert other organisations in the sector who needed to be informed.

“It is hard to fathom for instance why Education New Zealand, the organisation that is responsible for marketing New Zealand’s education sector overseas, was not advised about the alleged cheating service before last Friday. In addition representative students’ associations had not been contacted at all, yet we are one of the first organisations that the media comes to for comment,” says Hodkinson.

“Rather than rushing to apportion blame for breakdowns in communication on his watch, the Minister needs to examine and challenge his own performance. Given the leading role Steven Joyce has taken to increase international enrolments he needs to be accountable himself for the learning environment provided for those students”.

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Hodkinson says New Zealand maintains good levels of vigilance over cheating and plagiarism as demonstrated by figures released earlier this year that showed 282 students had been pulled up for various forms of academic misconduct across our seven universities in 2012.

“Cases of academic misconduct are not out of control. However what this latest case highlights is that quality systems have to be applied with equal vigour at all levels of tertiary education, and on the basis of a shared responsibility and obligation between institutions and all tertiary students, domestic or international.

“We believe one of the underlying areas of risk here is that tertiary education is being under-resourced. Bigger classes have meant there are fewer staff for the numbers of students which means less personal interaction. When that factor is coupled with a lack of specialist training for tertiary teaching staff it’s not surprising that cracks start to appear”.

ENDS

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NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations

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NZUSA is the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations, the national body that represents New Zealand's students' associations and the interests of New Zealand's 400,000 students at universities, polytechnics and in trades training.

We conduct original research, advocate to Government and through the media, and support New Zealand's students' associations to be more effective on behalf of their members. We advocate alongside Te Mana Akonga – The National Māori Students' Association, and Tertiary Women New Zealand – The NZUSA Women's Caucus.

Since 1929, we've believed in a society rich in opportunity, where anyone from anywhere can become any thing. We support accessible, affordable quality public tertiary education.

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