University says students cheated

A SECOND group of university students in Scotland has been disciplined after being accused of cheating.

Suspicions were raised at Glasgow University about the course work of 59 computing science students after a lecturer developed a software program to detect plagiarism. It was applied to the work of 230 first-year students, who had been warned the technology existed when they joined the course.

Seven students were exonerated, 11 were given a written warning with no penalty, while 25 had their marks reduced and were told that they had the right to appeal; several did and two had their appeals upheld. A further 16 students were reported to the university's senate assessors for discipline. The university says several cases have still to be completed and all students have a right of appeal.

The incident comes less than two months after it was disclosed that lecturers at Edinburgh University discovered similarities between the course work of 117 students, also taking courses in computing science. A month-long investigation resulted in a small number of first-year students being reported to the code of discipline.

One of the Edinburgh students intends to sue for defam-ation over the allegations. Henrietta Roe, 20, and other accused students have set up a website to co-ordinate their response to the accusations.