– As the regulations are now, a student can be caught cheating for actions for which I, as a professor, would not have been sanctioned. So says Johan Giertsen, law professor at the University of Bergen. In the wake of the cases concerning the cheating of the Minister and possible cheating, Giertsen sent a letter to the Storting. Today, colleges and universities operate with different thresholds for what they consider to be cheating. Like several others, Giertsen is critical of the law for universities and colleges opening up for students to be treated differently from one another. – Where a student has chosen to study should have nothing to do with the rules for cheating, says Giertsen to news. – Would have been met with a shrug In the law Giertsen is subject to as a professor, it is not called cheating, but “scientific filth”. In this act, filth is linked to “serious breaches of recognized research ethical norms”. This means that a researcher would not be sanctioned for minor sloppy mistakes, Giertsen believes. This is contrary to the law the students must comply with. What constitutes “cheating” is not defined. Giertsen reacts to the fact that some universities and colleges have very strict rules regarding what they regard as cheating. – You can’t possibly make the same demands on students in their twenties, as on those who have worked here for several decades. There must be a greater margin for students when it comes to forgetfulness and misunderstandings. – But now it’s the other way around? – In some fields, it is actually like this. It sounds completely unreal. The search for authority over students has had the result that, for some actions, students are hit with stricter reactions than what would have been done, for example, if a professor had done something similar. Law professor Johan Giertsen believes it is wrong that students are punished more severely than he himself would have been. Here from Arendalsveka in 2018. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB – Self-plagiarism, how would you have reacted to a researcher? – One would rarely react to it, unless there were massive offences. Where a limited amount of text is requested, one would probably only be met with a shrug of the shoulders. Giertsen believes that the case which the state appealed to the Supreme Court about self-plagiarism at Høgskolen i Innlandet (HINN) would not have become a case at all if it had been an employee who had done the same. – It comes from the fact that HINN has stricter regulations for its students than what will apply to the employees at the college. Carelessness, such as misquoting, is also punished too severely, Giertsen believes. He believes it is completely unreasonable that such a mistake could lead to a canceled exam and exclusion. – A professor would never be banned from the workplace for a whole year because of a mistake like that. That would never happen, says Giertsen. Giertsen’s colleague, law professor Jan Fridtjof Bernt, believes that all errors cannot possibly be fraud. He questions whether the regulations made by individual colleges and universities are, on the whole, based in law. – You can’t have rules that all mistakes can be counted as cheating without further ado, says Bernt. Law professor Jan Fridtjof Bernt believes that universities and colleges must adhere to the established understanding of what constitutes cheating. Photo: Kjetil Rydland/news He emphasizes that there is a difference between objectionable and bad source use and cheating. – It is not a given that all breaches of these local, home-made rules can be perceived as cheating according to the University and College Act, with the serious consequences it has for the student. Bernt believes that the Ministry of Education has had both the right and duty to intervene and do something about the practice in this area. – When the government says that it will not say anything about what the Joint Appeals Board does, it has failed in its responsibility, says the law professor. – May there be a better balance between action and reaction The newly appointed Research and Higher Education Minister Oddmund Hoel (Sp) agrees that the current practice can hit something wrong. – I think we should crack down on serious cheating, but at the same time there must be a better balance between action and reaction, depending on how serious the act of cheating is. That is why we have proposed several changes in the proposal for a new university and university college act. We want milder reactions for the least serious cases and stricter reactions for the most serious ones, he says to news. Minister for Research and Higher Education Oddmund Hoel (Sp). Photo: Milana Knezevic / news He believes that more use of home exams and digital aids has led to more cheating. – We know that several people have requested a national regulation. I don’t think there is a good solution. On the contrary, it would be both unfortunate and unwieldy with a detailed centrally controlled regulation of what constitutes cheating. This is because development in the field is fast, something the use of artificial intelligence is a good example of. In addition, the institutions and subject areas are different. I think it is best that those who are closest to the subject and the students make rules that are adapted to each individual institution and subject area, says Hoel.
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Professor critical of students being punished more severely than professors – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
