How students cheat

Over the last decade, I have offered legal advice to thousands of students accused of cheating in their assessments. In university jargon, the term for cheating is ‘academic misconduct’. Although many assessments remain online after Covid, some have returned to the exam hall. There are still instances, therefore, of cheating à l’ancienne, with students writing notes on various limbs or smuggling in scraps of paper with minute writing.

I have had clients whose former partners have tipped off their ex’s university about historical episodes of cheating

At times, the cheat is caught by an invigilator spotting a nervous glance towards an annotated palm. In other cases, the crib sheet falls out of a pocket or protrudes from its hiding place. Other methods involve concealing notes nearby before the start of the exam, such as in a lavatory, and then finding excuses to visit those places during the exam. Frequent toilet visits will naturally arouse suspicion, especially if the student scribbles furiously on each return to the desk.