Harvard's Annual Report on Academic Misconduct
Plus, European awards. Plus, reported exam cheating in the UK is up 66% since the pandemic.
Issue 275
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Harvard’s Annual Report on Misconduct
I’m not sure when it came out exactly; I’ve been sitting on it for some time. So, it’s not recent. But given the spotlight on Harvard University (Harvard College) over plagiarism and that it’s Harvard, here’s an update on the school’s annual academic integrity report. It’s the most recent edition, and it covers the 2021-22 academic year.
First, again, big congratulations to Harvard for issuing it. Every school should. Instead, most schools pretend cheating does not happen. This is what leadership looks like.
In any case, this report says that the student-led commission responsible for reviewing and adjudicating academic integrity cases reviewed an even 100 cases in the 2021-22 year.
I have no idea what the right number of cases or official referrals is. But Harvard has an estimated enrollment of about 7,250 undergraduate students. As such, 100 cases is .7% — that feels very low. Very.
The previous year, the council reviewed 138 cases (see Issue 166). Given what we know happened in 2021-22, that 28% fewer cases would make their way to review seems dubious.
For context, Harvard is a school with a capital-H Honor Code, which means that most tests and assessments are unsupervised and most reporting and enforcement is expected to come from student peers, not teachers. There’s good research to support the idea that capital-H codes do limit misconduct. But they also deeply depress reporting, reducing the risks of being caught and meaningfully sanctioned. So, while overall misconduct rates at an institution such as Harvard may be lower than average, reporting will also be lower than average.
Still, a report rate below one percent is — in my view — not credible. Especially considering some of the messages we’ve seen at Harvard, such as this, from a professor there (see Issue 194):
“Generally, I trust students. I personally don't go super out of my way to try to detect student cheating,” he says. “And I am not going to start.”
In other words, it’s easy for me to believe that a significant amount of misconduct goes unreported at Harvard.
But that’s true most everywhere. There are few incentives to look for and/or report cheating, and many serious incentives not to.
In any case, Harvard’s annual report shows that, of the 100 cases they reviewed in that academic year, 70% were upheld — finding the student responsible for misconduct in some way. Though only 13% resulted in what is essentially a finding of not guilty. The missing 17% were dropped for lack of evidence, essentially — not for lack of misconduct.
More numbers:
63 cases involved freshmen
35 involved “exam cheating”
42 involved “plagiarism”
34 students received probation
12 were “required to withdraw”
Those were the numbers at Harvard, for the record.
Incidents of UK National Exam Cheating Increase 17%, Up 66% Over Pre-Pandemic
According to reporting and official data from the UK government, incidents of exam cheating on national high school attainment tests have increased 17% over last year and increased a whopping two-thirds since before the pandemic.
From the media coverage:
there were 4,895 cases of malpractice involving students this summer that resulted in penalties being applied, up from 4,105 in 2022 and 2,950 in pre-pandemic 2019.
The number of pupils caught cheating has jumped by 17 per cent year-on-year, from 3,985 last summer to 4,665 this year.
These data are for the “GCSEs, AS and A-levels this year.”
Though the numbers are climbing, the reports show that the rate of incidents is still quite small considering that, in this data set, 17 million exams were administered. Still, the trend line ought to be troubling.
Here, from official government data, is a graph that tells the story better than I can:
It’s always possible, of course, that such a clear trendline is a signal of better awareness, more intervention instead of more malpractice, as the chart labels it. But, it’s also possible that the trendline shows more cheating.
Either way, something is happening. And this data from the UK is not the only place we’ve seen the incidents of reported academic misconduct continue their upward march (see Issue 249).
European Network for Academic Integrity Opens Award Nominations
The European Network for Academic Integrity has announced that it is now accepting nominations for its annual awards.
Details are here: https://www.academicintegrity.eu/wp/enai-awards/
They are also, it appears, co-hosting a symposium on plagiarism and integrity, in Canada, in May.
Details on that are here: https://academicintegrity.eu/conference/