Over 1,500 university students report for cheating and plagiarism

Over 1,500 students at Irish universities have been reported for exam cheating, plagiarism, or the use of ‘essay mills’ over the past three years, it has been revealed.

In the case of 'essay mills', a student pays a company to write their essay. 

Trinity College Dublin and TU Dublin reported the highest numbers of cases with more than 1,000 instances of students trying to cheat at exams or in assignments at the two universities, figures show.

The Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin) confirmed it had dealt with 568 cases where students were found to have breached exam regulations or plagiarised material.

There were 33 cases of suspected exam-cheating in the most recent academic year and 138 cases where a student plagiarised work for their assignments.

However, the data did not include supplemental assignments that were in progress at the time, the university said, meaning the figures could rise still further.

TU Dublin said the cases it dealt with had resulted in the expulsion of two students from the college in the the past three years.

A spokeswoman for TU Dublin told Independent.ie it that it was committed to ensuring the highest academic standards were upheld for its 30,000-plus students.

TCD said it had 445 cases of suspected cheating in the academic years between 2019 and 2021 but that figures for last year were not yet available.

For the academic year 2020/21, it reported 143 cases of plagiarism and 154 cases of cheating, according to records released under FOI.

However, no students were suspended. 

University College Cork (UCC) reported almost no cases over the last three years with just one case of plagiarism recorded in the academic year 2019/20.

The University of Galway said eight cases of cheating or plagiarism were reported to its discipline committee or exam security group in the last academic year.

It reported more than 110 cases of academic cheating over the past three years, with 12 of those cases subsequently overturned on appeal.

The university said plagiarism or contract cheating cases were only referred for full investigation when “the level of cheating is so substantial in volume as to have a serious impact on the academic integrity of the work”.