Medical school hit by cheating row

‘Students with detailed prior knowledge … undermines the quality of the exam’

ASPIRING doctors at one of Britain’s oldest medical schools have been embroiled in a cheating row after it emerged students used social media to leak details of exams.

More than 270 final year students at the University of Glasgow were yesterday told they would have to retake their end-of-course practical assessment because of online “collusion”.

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) tests students’ ability to handle working on a hospital ward and involves a series of 10-minute challenges examining and diagnosing real patients, as well as studying data such as x-rays and test results.

Yesterday the medical school said a “small number” of students used Face- book, WhatsApp and the university’s own messaging platform to tip off their fellows who were yet to take the assessment about the scenarios they would face.

Two students are facing disciplinary and fitness to practice procedures, which could mean they are barred from becoming doctors, while more are under investigation.

Course leaders admit they cannot know now many students took advantage of the online information, so they are forcing the whole cohort to retake the exam in May.

They said the monitoring of social media sites was being stepped up to prevent a repeat of the apparent cheating.

A spokesman for the university said the decision to declare void the results of the previous exam was taken “in an abundance of caution to ensure that the skills of our students are rigorously and fairly tested before they graduate in medicine”.

Passing the assessment, alongside several written exams, is the point at which medical students become junior doctors and begin practising in hospitals under the supervision of consultants.

Professor Matthew Walters, head of the school of medicine, dentistry and nursing, said: “We’re uncomfortable with the prospect of students with detailed prior knowledge. It undermines the quality of the exam.”

He added that re-staging the assessment, which takes place over a whole week, would require “considerable effort”.

He said there was a “shared sense of disappointment” among students and staff when they were told the news, but also a joint understanding of the importance of having a trusted assessment.

“The class essentially recognise and understand the need for a robust and thorough assessment prior to their graduation and are accepting of the decision to rerun the whole exam,” he said.

Last year it emerged that thousands of student nurses had been disciplined for cheating over the previous three years for collusion in exams, as well as other offences such as plagiarism and impersonating other students.

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