Source: Alamy

Cause for concern: high levels of ¡®collusion and plagiarism¡¯ on Dubai campus

Almost one in eight students at part of a UK branch campus in Dubai have been found guilty of cheating, it has emerged, with low entry standards being blamed for the figures.

One hundred and twenty-five students out of 1,045 in total were found guilty of academic misconduct at Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus¡¯ School of Management and Languages in 2011-12.

Entry standards have also been blamed for students struggling academically at the campus, with close to one in 12 across the Dubai branch failing to progress to the 2012-13 academic year.

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The cheating issue was raised during a Heriot-Watt senate meeting in January, when the university¡¯s principal, Steve Chapman, highlighted the ¡°high proportion of cases involving collusion and plagiarism¡± at the campus, ¡°particularly among students in the School of Management and Languages¡±, the minutes record.

In March, the senate considered a report into academic misconduct at the branch, which concluded that raising entry standards was an ¡°important potential mechanism¡± for reducing cheating and improving progression rates.

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One member of the senate expressed concern that entrance standards at the campus were lower than for students in Edinburgh.

A spokeswoman for Heriot-Watt said that there was a minimum entry tariff that applied across all its campuses, but standards above that threshold could vary according to ¡°the number of places available, the strength of demand, various international education systems and in some cases background¡±.

She added: ¡°All students on identical programmes wherever they are taught are assessed according to the same criteria, and identical academic standards apply across the university.¡±

An ¡°action plan¡± had been put in place to cut cheating at the school, the spokeswoman said, including ¡°increasing awareness of required standards among entry-level students¡± and the use of anti-plagiarism software.

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In 2012-13, cases of cheating at the school dropped from 11.9 per cent of students to 4.7 per cent, the spokeswoman said.

She added that Heriot-Watt¡¯s branch campus was the largest in Dubai and that its entry standards were among the highest in the emirate.

It educates about 3,500 students, of whom around a third attend the School of Management and Languages.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com