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Caution urged against over-stating ‘cheating scandal’
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”.
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
NZUSA - New Zealand Union of Students' Associations
We stand for opportunity, for all.
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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