Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
SNU to adopt stricter anti-cheating measures
By Kim Rahn
Seoul National University (SNU) has decided to introduce tougher measures to prevent cheating.
The school authority said Tuesday that it informed all professors and lecturers of stricter guidelines concerning cheating.
This follows a series of incidents at the nation’s most prestigious university during the recent midterm exams.
Students have complained that there was no consistency in professors’ countermeasures toward cheating and punishment to cheaters.
According to the new guidelines, at least one exam supervisor per 50 students, such as a teaching assistant, should attend the exam. Professors should also be present.
Students are banned from using electronic devices such as cell phones. They also can’t get their exam papers back when they raise objections about their results.
If cheating is detected, the student will be ordered to leave the classroom immediately and will face punishment according to school regulations.
“Those are basic anti-cheating measures but these have not been well kept,” an SNU official said. “We informed professors of the measures again to bring fresh awareness that cheating is a serious act.”
Separately from the measures, the school authority will investigate students who took exams for two lectures that cheating had taken place, and penalize those involved.
Last month, some students said on the school’s intranet that about 10 students looked for answers on the Internet on their mobile phones and shared answers during an exam in a sexual morality class. Only one teaching assistant served as an exam supervisor for a class of 250 students.
As further information emerged, the lecturer of the class posted an announcement asking those who cheated to present themselves voluntarily for a re-test. Eventually all the students had to redo the exam last week.
In another exam on statistics, a student raised an objection about his test results, got his answer sheet back from the professor for the confirmation process, and then resubmitted his test after correcting all his wrong answers.
All the students in the class had to re-sit the exam.
Many citizens criticized the cheating at SNU, the nation’s top school. An Internet user said, “SNU students have a high chance of becoming leaders of the nation. When they graduate and take ranking positions in business or government, they may conduct even greater cheating.”