Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Mohammed Shami: The Muslim cricketer who carried an Islamophobic nation to the Men’s Cricket World Cup Final
    • Moving beyond the theoretical: Privacy law reform in Australia
    • Digital privacy, missing voices, and cookies: IAPP Summit 2023
    • SUDS 2023 Major: A Corpse in the Cabinet — Review
    • In Defence of Studying Useless Degrees
    • “I Don’t Like Living Sometimes”: An Interview with Mark Scott
    • Tensions rise between Arc and Tharunka over editorial processes
    •  ‘Some good old Southern hospitality’: Steel Magnolias at the Genesian Theatre
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Saturday, December 2
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    Honi Soit
    Home»News

    Spence to Lead Anti-Cheating Taskforce

    By Tom GardnerApril 15, 2015 News 2 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    University of Sydney vice-chancellor Dr Michael Spence has told the University Senate that he would institute a taskforce on academic misconduct.

    The decision comes in the wake of the Sydney Morning Herald reporting in November last year that up to a thousand university students had contracted Sydney-based company MyMaster to pen essays and sit online tests for them. Although scores of University of Sydney students were implicated in the scandal, the University has only managed to identify only five of them.

    The main reason other students were not identified is because Turnitin was not consistently used across the University, even though Dr Spence told the federal tertiary education regulator, TEQSA, that its use was widespread.

    Other NSW universities affected, including the University of Newcastle, Macquarie University, and the University of New South Wales, have relied on Turnitin to successfully identify which of their students used MyMaster to plagiarise.

    The MyMaster scandal spans sixteen Australian higher learning institutions, but the University of Sydney is one of the worst affected. The Herald reported that the 61 ghostwritten assignments requested by University of Sydney students cost between $90 and $800.

    Although several faculties are represented, over 70% of the requests were for subjects offered by the Business School. Incredibly, one student reportedly procured MyMaster to author his assignment for a Writing Hub unit of study (WRIT1000, WRIT1001 or WRIT2002).

    Dr Spence, who intends to chair the university-wide taskforce himself, issued a statement yesterday describing academic misconduct as a problem with which the entire education sector must contend.

    “Our assessment processes are designed to minimise the opportunity for misconduct, but we know that the advent of new technologies has led to increasingly innovative methods for students to use, and sadly a small number continue to try and use them instead of applying such innovation to their studies,” he said.

    “The taskforce will consider new methods for detecting plagiarism and other misconduct, changing assessment methods to minimise opportunities for students to engage in conduct and ways to build the University’s culture by making students partners and champions of academic values and the fostering of academic integrity.”

     

    Keep Reading

    Tensions rise between Arc and Tharunka over editorial processes

    Seventh consecutive pro-Palestine rally held at Hyde Park

    ‘Stand up, fight back’: Trans Day of Resistance Rally and March

    Groove to lead SULS for 2024, with Danielle Tweedale elected President

    USyd Law School Dean to finish term mid-next year

    Students across Sydney strike in solidarity with Palestine

    Just In

    Mohammed Shami: The Muslim cricketer who carried an Islamophobic nation to the Men’s Cricket World Cup Final

    December 1, 2023

    Moving beyond the theoretical: Privacy law reform in Australia

    November 30, 2023

    Digital privacy, missing voices, and cookies: IAPP Summit 2023

    November 30, 2023

    SUDS 2023 Major: A Corpse in the Cabinet — Review

    November 30, 2023
    Editor's Picks

    Puff, puff, pass: What does cannabis legalisation mean for student communities?

    November 1, 2023

    Privacy is not dead, yet

    October 26, 2023

    ‘A patchwork quilt of repression’: The disappearing right to protest in NSW

    October 17, 2023

    The lights are on, but no one’s home: inside USyd’s International House

    October 10, 2023
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2023 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.