Engineering students are the worst offenders when it comes to cheating on exam, McGill and Concordia Universities have discovered.
At McGill, the latest statistics show, engineering students account for more than one-third of all cheating complaints, though they make up only 7 per cent of the student population. Concordia's figures are similar
The situation came to light as a result of strict reporting practices universities are developing to fight plagiarism and other forms of cheating.
Concordia started keeping track in 1997-98, when 28 cases were reported. In 1998-99 with more teachers aware of the policy, the number of complaints shot up to 60, including 21 in the engineering faculty.
Last September, the university distributed a pamphlet to teachers outlining the policy, and at least 10 cases have been reported through last month. But more are likely to surface this month from the December exam period.
Concordia's policy is based on a model developed at McGill, which has been keeping detailed statistics on cheating for several years.
Like most policies at large universities, it requires teachers not to discipline cheaters, but to report them to the appropriate faculty dean.
"It's actually better not to have it in your hands," said Nicola Nixon, an English professor at Concordia, explaining it's only fair that an impartial party settle such matters. When professors impose their own sanctions, she said, there's the potential for unequal treatment of cases.
At McGill, 71 cheating complaints were reported in 1997-98 (statistics for 1998-99 have not yet been made public). The engineering faculty topped the list, accounting for 26 of those cases.
However, Frank Mucciardi, McGill's associate dean of engineering, said the total was inflated by a single class in which about 15 students collaborated on a lab report.
But Mucciardi noted that some students in the faculty are under tremendous pressure to succeed.
"There are programs that am very demanding," he said. So it's very competitive"
Especially, he added, if students who are used to getting top-notch grades in college suddenly find they are failing at the university level.
Morton Mendelson, associate dean of science at McGill, said the university, plans to use evidence from the computerized analysis of answers to multiple-choice exams this semester to initiate allegations of cheating.
Prior to last December's exam period, such evidence would have been used only to corroborate an existing allegation, said Mendelson, who is monitoring results of the testing.
Brain Freedman, Concordia's legal counsel, said both universities have centralized offices that aim to crack down on repeat offenders. The idea is to ensure that cases of cheating are not handled by individual professors.
"If faculty members impose their own sanctions there is no record of this," Freedman said. 'A student may commit numerous offences in different courses and no one would be aware of this pattern."
This means a data bank is being kept containing names of all suspected cheaters.
Terrill Fancott, associate dean of engineering and computer science at Concordia, interviews most of the students accused of cheating within the engineering faculty. He would be the first to impose a penalty.
POLICIES VARY
"We try to make it extremely difficult to cheat," Fancott said.
Fourteen of last year's 21 cheating complaints against engineering students ended up being dismissed without penalty, he said, but the students who were caught received failing grades and were forced to take a philosophy course on ethics. Fancott said this might be the ultimate punishment for engineering students.
At the Université de Montréal, professors are required to report all cases. But Francine Verrier, who is in charge of hearing appeals by students punished for cheating, said no statistics are kept and it's possible that some cases aren't reported.
The policy at the Université du Québec à Montréal allows professors to impose their own sanctions on cheaters before reporting the case.
The administration says it's an extension of the teacher's duties.
"The professor is the one who evaluates the student at all levels," said Réginald Trépanier, who oversees some of the more serious cases at UQÀM.
But Nixon, the English professor at Concordia who also sits on the university board that hears student appeals of sanctions imposed by the deans, insists that professors shouldin't try to settle matters on their own.
"Everybody's gun-shy of legalities," she said. "Professors can't settle it"