An entire computer sciences class at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra has been told every student will be penalised 30 per cent because some of them cheated on an exam.
Key points:
- In an email sent just before the Christmas break, about 300 students were told they would all be penalised because of reported plagiarism detected in their computer sciences class
- Students have responded in anger, saying it is unfair for them to all be punished over unproven misconduct by some students
- The university says the subject has been compromised by misconduct, and it is working with students to ensure all marks awarded are “appropriate”
Yesterday ANU computer sciences convenor Hanna Kurniawati wrote to students of her third-year algorithms class to say that because she could not identify the perpetrators of “massive academic misconduct reports”, the entire class of about 300 students would be punished.
“Please don’t complain to teaching staff about this penalty, rather you should complain to your colleagues who were trying to outsource their [final project] (which is plentiful),” Dr Kurniawati wrote in an email to the students.
“Though, we’re nice enough to put the minimum of [final project]mark to be zero (i.e. none get negative mark).”
The project, which was to develop a working application software, was worth 40 per cent of the overall course mark.
On an internal ANU Facebook group, students vented their anger.
Students took to Facebook to complain about the decision to penalise an entire class over alleged misconduct.(ABC News)
Some students called the class an “evil course” and the decision a breach of academic misconduct rules.
“Wasn’t much better when I took that course… You should ABSOLUTELY complain to relevant teaching staff about it and it’s totally screwed up that they’re asking you not to,” a former student wrote.
“This is really terrible. Beyond primary school, group punishments really should not be a thing,” another said.
Another joked it was “time to call ANU to The Hague”.
Rules require misconduct allegations to be fully investigated
Under the 2015 Academic Misconduct Rule set out by the ANU’s vice-chancellor, allegations of serious plagiarism must be reviewed by the course convenor, or referred to a registrar for investigation.
The reviewer must write to the student to inform them of the allegation and offer them a chance to respond.
If the reviewer still believes there is misconduct, it must be referred for investigation.
And if that investigation determines likely misconduct, then an inquiry in which the student is able to make statements and call witnesses must proceed before a penalty is imposed.
Despite final marks being posted to ANU students almost a fortnight ago, they were only told by email of the 30 per cent penalty by Dr Kurniawati yesterday.
It is unclear how penalising students who have not been proven to have engaged in academic misconduct interacts with the ANU’s rules set out under federal legislation.
In a statement, a spokesman for the university said it was working with students to clarify the situation and ensure all marks for the course were appropriate.
“The university is aware of a situation surrounding alleged academic misconduct for an assessment for one course in the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science,” the spokesman said.
“Because this assessment has been compromised, to maintain the course’s academic integrity other assessments have been re-scaled accordingly to the benefit of all students.
“Students are able to score 100 in total for the course.”
The ANU did not provide evidence that this had been communicated to computer science students when asked.
Dr Kurniawati referred to the university’s response when contacted by the ABC for comment.