Penalties for students for academic misconduct

Universities expect students to study hard, to attend lectures, practical work etc., to comply with the requirements of the discipline. Educators measure students’ progress through their programme using key assessment elements. They are the same for face to face and distance education: written assignments - essays, course works, lab reports, written examination papers, etc.; interviews - oral examinations, colloquiums, discussion of lab reports, etc.; computerized testing - in campus or online. It is a fundamental principle that students are assessed fairly and on equal terms. Any attempt by a student to gain unfair advantage over another student in the completion of assessment is considered as academic dishonesty. Offences relating to assessed written work may include the following: plagiarism, use of the work of third parties (ghostwriters) etc. Offences relating to examinations may include the use of crib sheets, micro earphones, smartphones etc. One of the main problems with online assessment is to ensure that a student and not a third party passes exams or submits assignments. Educators in universities are able to find out most of attempts of cheating. Antiplagiarism software, online and physical proctoring, their own experience are at their disposal. Offending students get penalties in all epochs. European universities used even corporal punishments in the Medieval. Today’s sanctions in Russian universities for students are warning, probation and expulsion. Implementation of these sanctions does not include clear procedures for handling academic misconduct. This article provides an overview of the penalties for academic misconduct in some foreign universities (Manchester Metropolitan University in GB, University of South Africa, Anadolu University in Turkey, Georgia Institute of Technology in USA). They have advanced scales of student’s penalties for academic misconduct. Seriousness of these penalties depends on the number of offences in the students’ portfolio and the rate of plagiarism or collusion in the element of assessment. Examples of recommended penalties are a mark of 0 with no opportunity to rework assessment, imposition of a 40% cap on unit marks, suspension from the university for a minimum of one semester, expulsion, and etc. This experience is useful for Russian universities. Development and use of the procedures for handling academic misconduct in Russian universities will help educators to struggle effectively against students’ cheating. However, there are realities and traditions in Russian tertiary education. Russia has the largest graduation rate among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. High dropout rate means financial problems and reputational risks for universities.

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