– It was as if everything just collapsed around me. Three months ago, Sondre Hofstedt had a written exam in psychology at Høgskolen i Innlandet. When he was about to take a drug break, he handed over his mobile phone, which he had on airplane mode in his pocket, to one of the exam invigilators. Sondre’s student cohort is considered the “corona cohort”. They are fresh from their school exams. Sondre had not realized that the mobile had to be packed away in the bag. The 25-year-old says that he acted in good faith and that he was conscientious when he handed over his mobile phone. But available aids were not allowed during this exam, and Sondre was therefore accused of cheating. The result was exclusion for six months and cancellation of the exam. – Of course I should have shut up and not said anything. You don’t get banned for having your mobile phone in your pocket, but you do get banned for giving it up, he says. Sondre has complained about the decision on exclusion. The lawyer for the 25-year-old believes that the appeals committee to the university has not given enough importance to the evidence that is available. Reacting to the treatment The psychology exam lasted from 9:00 to 13:00 on Thursday 3 November. In an attempt to prove that there was no activity on the mobile during this period, Sondre took a screenshot of his mobile usage from that day. The ticket shows that the mobile phone was not active during the time the exam took place: Above you can see which apps were in use on the day Sondre took the exam. If you swipe further, you can see in what period these were used.Snapchat, Rif and Instagram were used both before and after the exam. But there should not have been activity on these between 09:00-13:00. The same applies to Spotify, Chrome and Messenger. Other apps that were in use that day were Messages, Letterboxd and Gmail. Nor do these show any activity during the exam period. The last four apps used by Sondre that day were YouTube, Telephone, Foto and Canvas Student. Nor should these have been opened during the period in which the exam took place. But the fact that Sondre did not use his mobile phone during this period does not help. The rules for Høgskolen i Innlandet are clear: “Having illegal aids available during the exam is considered cheating or attempted cheating”. In a meeting report from the university, which news has been sent, it is stated that “(…) the problematic thing is that the student had the phone available. The possibility of cheating was there.” Sondre reacts to the fact that students who do not cheat are treated the same as those who actually cheat, or who have tried to do so. – Everyone has the opportunity to cheat on an exam. Given this mindset, everyone should be caught cheating. One would think that the system should reprimand and punish those who have actually cheated. The only thing they achieve in this case is to punish someone they themselves acknowledge has not cheated. CONCERN: It is far less likely that I will enter the master’s now, as it is not certain that I will be able to correct the grade I had in the subject this is about. Photo: Daniel Risan – Care must be taken The school management at Høgskolen i Innlandet does not wish to comment on individual cases, but believes the legislation is clear. – The legislation does not distinguish between whether you actually use an aid, or whether you have it available. What is quite clear is that one should not have available aids. That’s according to Stine Grønvold, Vice Chancellor for Education at Høgskolen i Inlandet. She says that they see that some students do not show enough caution when it comes to the use of illegal aids during the exam. – It is about being sharp in an exam situation. One must exercise caution and be careful to observe the rules. EQUAL FOR EVERYONE: Grønvold says the university wants to have clear rules that are the same for everyone. There should be no doubt about what is right and wrong, she says. Photo: Marte Iren Noreng Trøen / news – I understand that each and every situation is perceived differently when individual cases are singled out. But when our students leave the University, we must all be involved in ensuring that there is no doubt about the quality of the diploma. – We must enforce these rules, so that we maintain trust in the Norwegian education system, she says. In the hope of reducing the number of cheating cases, the University College recently held a webinar on the topic. – It is about tendencies we have seen in actually the entire education industry nationally. The focus on cheating is increasing, and more cases are being discovered. We want to find out what we can do to ensure that the students do not end up in the situation where they are caught cheating, says Grønvold. This is considered cheating at HINN Høgskolen i Innlandet (HINN) writes on its pages that “Cheating or attempted cheating in an exam is considered, among other things”: having illegal aids available during the exam presenting other people’s work as your own citing sources or on otherwise use sources in written works without sufficient source references to cite or otherwise use own previous exam papers without sufficient source references to have obtained access to the exam by cheating on tests and the like which are conditions for sitting the exam, or by on incorrect grounds to have received approval for participation in compulsory teaching or other compulsory activities to have participated in illegal collaboration between exam candidates or groups References to all sources used, including own work, must be given. A transcript or copy without reference to the source is considered cheating, regardless of the source. Answers to individual home exams or other types of individual written work must be individual and independent work. The answer must not be based on the same original work or have the same author or common disposition as other answers. Source: HINN I think the rules should be up for discussion Birk Arildssønn Blekken is head of the Work Committee at the Student Organization in the Interior. He believes that today’s rules are too absolute. – Perhaps it is time for us to have a larger discussion about whether the cheating rules we have are actually right and fair. The aim is, after all, to train as many skilled professionals as possible – not necessarily to be police officers and hunt down villains. See the full answer from Birk Arildssønn Blekken: Birk Arildssønn Blekken is head of the working committee at the student organization in Innlandet. He answers this to the questions from news about the school’s rules linked to cheating on exams. – I think that the cheating function as it is practiced today is fundamentally hostile to knowledge and learning. Otherwise, in higher education, we are incredibly concerned that students should be able to learn, grow and understand things. Part of that is that we occasionally have to miss things, make mistakes and learn a new way of thinking. – The cheating rules as they are today are very strict. They are very absolute, and in a way a bit the opposite of what we are otherwise so concerned about. With cheating, we are concerned that everything that could possibly be cheating should be severely punished. What we see emerge in this case here is that we get completely bizarre cases, where a student without necessarily the intention to cheat and who has not actually done anything to cheat, other than that they had an aid available that could potentially have been used to cheating, ends up getting a very strict reaction from the college. We see that as very strange. – But it is written in black and white on the school’s website that “Having illegal aids available during the exam is considered cheating or attempted cheating”. – Yes it does. And we are also in favor of not being allowed to cheat, and you should basically have aids available. But it is important to bear in mind that higher education is new to many. There are completely new rules and a completely new world to deal with. Then it is also very difficult to keep one’s tongue straight in one’s mouth about exactly what should be. – Now the college will have a webinar on this topic, what do you think about it? – I think that sounds very good. It is good that they spend time preparing the students. It is important that rules are rules, and it is also a bit about there being predictability with the students. But at the same time, it is important for us to be able to have a larger discussion about whether the cheating rules today are actually in line with what we want to achieve. Kjersti Brevik Møller, Sondre’s lawyer, believes the regulations are unclear. She wants the appeal board to spend more time on the case. – It is a rather serious decision. We believe that the college’s appeals committee has not given proper weight to the evidence that is available, and that they have not considered it thoroughly enough against the decision. CAN GET IT REVERSED: Kjersti Brevik Møller thinks Sondre may have a chance to get the decision overturned. Photo: brevikmoller.no Møller calls the pronunciation from the school management narrow. – There is not a very clear set of regulations, and colleges and universities do not practice this in the same way either. It is not a completely straight forward matter. In that sense, I think that Sondre has a chance to have the decision reversed. Concern for own future Sondre reacts to the fact that the university stands so firmly on its side. He believes the school management lacks understanding of his case. UTE: – I feel cheated. It is also sad in terms of colloquium groups and all the cooperation we have had – not being able to continue participating in that community. Photo: Daniel Risan The 25-year-old said that the plan was to apply for psychology studies in Denmark. But now he is worried about his own future. – It is terribly frustrating. With the average I may have then, it is not certain that I will be able to study what I want to study further.
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Sondre (25) had his mobile phone in his pocket during the exam: was banned for six months
