Page 56 - EducationWorld June 2022_Neat

International News

RUSSIA rebuild the destroyed cities of Ukraine, because it will help
Student protests crackdown their protest energy to find a better use”. In another, a fe-

male student was advised to get married quickly to change
her Ukrainian surname.
He describes administrators as zealous in their pursuit of
offenders: “We have the impression that university manag-
ers are playing the key role in the attempts we’re seeing to
silence students — not on orders from above.”

GLOBAL
Cheating epidemic

NCIDENTS OF CHEATING IN ONLINE examinations
have hit a record high, according to proctoring data that
Ishows that one in 14 students was caught breaking the
rules last year. Analysis of data on 3 million tests globally
that used the ProctorU invigilation platform found that
“confirmed breaches” of test regulations — incidents where
Campus arrest in Moscow there is clear evidence of misconduct — were 6.6 percent
of all cases.
RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS ARE LEADING THE This is 14 times higher than the 0.5 percent misconduct
charge in cracking down on student opposition rate detected in the 15 months prior to the start of the Coro-
to the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, with hundreds navirus pandemic, which triggered the widespread adop-
of students estimated to have been expelled already. With tion of online assessments and, with this, a surge in the use
Russian academia increasingly cut off from the outside of online proctoring services such as ProctorU. But it also
world, student dissidents are finding themselves targeted represents a steep increase on 2020, when breaches were
by the very institutions tasked with nurturing their critical confirmed in 3.9 percent of tests — indicating that the prob-
thinking. On March 9, Russia’s ministry of internal affairs lem is getting worse as students become more accustomed
reportedly ordered Saint Petersburg State University to ex- to online tests.
pel 13 students who participated in anti-war protests, in The data is based on tests conducted in about 1,000
what academics say is an escalation of the crackdown on centres around the world, mostly in the US, the UK and
free speech. Australia. The confirmed breach rate for higher education
While no official figures exist, hundreds of students have assessments only — excluding professional exams — was
likely been expelled for their opposition to the war, says even higher than the overall average, at 7.2 percent.
Vladimir Ashurkov, a Russian activist and executive direc- ProctorU founder Jarrod Morgan, who is now chief strat-
tor of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a Moscow-based egy officer of the Alabama-based parent company Meazure
non-profit established by opposition politician Alexei Na- Learning, says he is concerned that the rate of cheating is
valny. so high even though students know they are being watched
Ashurkov, who now coordinates the Freedom Degree by an invigilator. Confirmed breaches included candidates
project, which fields queries from students facing expulsion, looking at papers or books they should not have had, other
told Times H igher Educ ation that the initiative has been people being present in the room during an assessment or
flooded with requests in recent weeks. “Many of the letters a student attempting to take a test on behalf of a classmate.
we receive begin with: ‘I’m very scared,’” he says. “Some of Morgan says rates of cheating would likely be even higher
them are trying to challenge the expulsion and to re-enrol; at universities that did not use online proctoring, and he
some of them are looking for opportunities to transfer to worries that high levels of rule-breaking could devalue stu-
another university, including foreign options; some of them dents’ qualifications. “It doesn’t take long before the whole
are just shocked and frustrated, but all of them need advice thing starts to collapse; the value of a degree or grade comes
and moral support.” from society agreeing that if you get it from such a place, it
Even at universities that stop short of expelling students, means something,” he says. “If we start to think it doesn’t
scare tactics are “blatant and offensive, and they target the mean as much because we know people have cheated their
brightest and most promising students. Students are being way through the courses, the whole thing starts to get
rejected by supervisors, fired from laboratories and told shaky.”
they’ll face problems defending their theses,” he says. Dr. Thomas Lancaster, a senior teaching fellow and ex-
Ashurkov notes one case in which students were told pert in academic integrity at Imperial College London, says
they should apply for academic leave to “volunteer to help that while it has been well-documented that misconduct

56 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2022