In the wake of the embarrassing news that the University of Sydney‘s methods for detecting cheating and plagiarism lag behind others in the state, the vice chancellor has announced a special task force to tackle academic dishonesty.
Per reports in ABC News, Dr Michael Spence will personally head up said task force, which will investigate various methods of cheating, including essay ghost writing services like the notorious MyMaster.
“Academic misconduct has no place at the University of Sydney, and the overwhelming majority of our students adhere to our high standards of academic merit, intellectual rigour and ethical behaviour,” said Dr Spence, in a recent statement.
“This is not a problem unique to a single faculty or cohort of students – or indeed a single university – but one with which the entire education sector must contend,” he continued.
One popular method of detecting plagiarism is the software Turnitin, however, last week, it was revealed that only some academics and departments at Sydney Uni actually use this as part of their electronic submission process.
Currently, a maximum of five Sydney Uni students are facing suspension or expulsion after being caught using MyMaster, whereas other institutions like UNSW are investigating more than a dozen cases each.
“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,” Spence said.
It is not yet clear what methods the Sydney Uni task force will use to track down cheats.
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