Cheating 'rampant' outside NZ
Revalations of a commercial cheating service for Chinese-speaking students are probably just the tip of the iceberg, a senior Victoria University academic says.
The low threshold for English competency in New Zealand universities, combined with different cultural attitudes to cheating, meant the revelation in the Sunday Star-Times "doesn't come as the slightest surprise", associate professor of economics Martin Lally said yesterday.
"In China, and in many other countries, cheating and corruption is rampant - they have a philosophy that is completely different to us. Other countries don't share our attitude. It's more like if you can get away with it, then fine."
New Zealand was regularly rated one of the least-corrupt countries in the world, and its negative attitude to cheating made the country a global "outlier", he said.
Many foreign students were "hopeless at writing an essay" because they lacked basic English proficiency. "I have some sympathy for them, because English is not their first language, so they're more tempted to cheat."
His Finance 201 course had about 300 students, about half of whom spoke English as a second language and were mostly from China or Southeast Asia.
Six university-employed tutors dealt with about 50 students each in this class, and Dr Lally said it was impossible for tutors to assess students' English proficiency on an individual basis.
Professor Bob Buckle, dean of commerce at Victoria Business School, said supervised examinations and tests made up 100 per cent of the assessment for the Finance 201 course, and the school took the quality of its teaching very seriously.
Victoria University accounting student Haojun Chen, 21, from Shanghai, said plagiarism was a problem in Chinese universities.
She also thought the English standards required to study here were "a little bit low".
But the main factor driving Chinese students to cheat was parental pressure, Ms Chen said.
Many students studying in New Zealand were from urban, middle-class families and parents had all their hopes invested in them because of China's one-child policy.
Other Chinese students at Victoria said cheating was an individual, not a cultural, problem. Computer science student Bowen Yin, 23, of Yanji, said Chinese students could be lazy. "For some Chinese people, their English is not so good and it's easier to buy an essay."
The level of English proficiency for international undergraduates depends on what level of the New Zealand Qualification Framework they are studying.
Professor Rob Rabel, pro vice-chancellor (international) at Victoria, said foreign students had to meet the same language proficiency requirements as students at all other New Zealand universities. "These assessments are used internationally in the tertiary sector."
Victoria also offered an English proficiency programme to help international students with their English-language performance.
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority said it was still gathering evidence in relation to the Assignment4U site to determine what action might be taken. Police said they were liaising with the authority and might take action if fraud could be established.
CHEATS OUT
In 2012, out of about 21,000 students enrolled over the course of the year at Victoria University, there were 75 cases of academic misconduct. Of those, 69 were for plagiarism, three for exam cheating, and three for other forms of academic misconduct.