

NZ police uncover large educational cheating service - arjn
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/8662224/Chinese-cheats-rort-NZ-universities-with-fakes

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csense
It's more-or-less impossible to prove that any kind of take-home assignment
was actually done by the student himself/herself.

This is why a large proportion of a degree should be based on in-class work
where the student is physically present.

Also, when these people graduate without understanding the subjects they
cheated on, won't they be too incompetent to hold down the jobs their degrees
are supposed to enable?

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ptaipale
I have a terrible suspicion that they will, and that is a partial reason for
some things that are wrong in the world...

Particularly when the said jobs are in politics, government, quangos.

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Osmium
It's not like good performance in exams means you'll perform well in the real
world anyway. It just means you can perform well in exams... In that respect,
even if there were no cheaters, you couldn't be sure that someone won't be
incompetent (or, conversely, that someone "under-qualified" isn't actually
really quite bright but just happens to suck at exams).

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ptaipale
There's no guarantee that good performance in exams means good performance in
actual work.

But there is a correlation, as in "numerous studies have found modest to
sizeable correlations between school achievement and work performance, even
after controlling for the effects of general ability measures."

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navs
I just wonder, as a student, is it more important to get your qualification
than it is to learn something?

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anxx
As a student, that seems to be right (qualification > learning). It is the
university's job to make sure qualification <\--iff--> learning.

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fungi
water is wet, the sky is blue.

the only thing mildly surprising about this is that police care.

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arjn
Yeah cheating by students is a reality but this is taking it to a whole new
level.

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jeza
If you read the article, it says that the NZ government 'amended the Education
Act in 2011 to make it an offence to advertise or provide cheating services'.
If it's happening on a large scale isn't it comparable to fraud?

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arjn
Yes it is fraud, organized fraud. I assume they don't need to advertise
because it's likely to be a word-of-mouth thing.

