Medical students’ cheating scandal
Fury as 270 will have to retake final year exam
MEDICAL students at a leading university have been caught cheating in a final year exam.
It took place only months before they were due to graduate.
Some 270 undergraduates will now be forced to resit the test after evidence of ‘collusion’ among students.
Two students caught sharing information ahead of the exam face being banned. A number of others are also being investigated.
The announcement was made yesterday by the University of Glasgow. It said a clinical exam earlier this year has been declared ‘void’ after it emerged a handful of students had shared information about the test using social media.
Students are not allowed to discuss details of practical tests, but course leaders found evidence of sharing information online.
The students responsible face a disciplinary and fitness to practise process, which could see them banned from graduating. The exam has been rescheduled for May. The students are due to begin working as NHS doctors in August.
Professor Matthew Walters, head of the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, said it was ‘disappointing’ to have discovered the breach – an ‘unprecedented’ experience.
The exam involved is the objective structured clinical examination. It is a practical test in which students are faced with such challenges as interpreting an X-ray, making a diagnosis or examining a patient. As there are limited scenarios examiners can create, students are not allowed to discuss situations they have come across or know to have been used in previous exams.
Professor Walters said: ‘We monitor social media and detected a small number of students sharing information that may have given them an advantage. Students had got hold of some questions used previously and were discussing this, despite our instructions to the contrary.
‘Collusion of this nature calls into question the validity of the assessment, so we have scrapped the exam. Regrettably, we have to do the whole thing again.
‘Two students are now facing disciplinary procedures. More students may have been exposed to this information, so there may be more to come.
‘Although we didn’t have any evidence that the results of the exam had been compromised, we felt the safest course of action was a fresh assessment.’
A first year medical student at the university said: ‘We’re all so angry a select few people think it’s OK to cheat because now we are all tainted. I don’t know why anybody would go through five years of a degree only to throw it away at the end. It reflects badly on everyone.’
Mita Dhullipala, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish medical students committee, said: ‘This is obviously very concerning for both students and the medical school. We support the decision to arrange for the exam to be retaken.’