One in six university students in the UK have admitted they have cheated while taking online exams in the last year, according to a poll by law group Alpha Academic Appeals.
The survey of 900 undergraduates found that around 16% of students cheated. Of those students who admitted to cheating just 5% were caught by their institutions.
Alpha found that more than half of students (52%) knew people who had cheated in online assessments.
Despite the end of Covid restrictions, most universities continued with online assessments this summer instead of traditional in-person exams. Some 79% of students in the survey believed that it was easier to cheat in online exams than in exam halls.
The reported methods of cheating were mostly unsophisticated, showing the ease with which cheating occurs in remote assessments. Common methods included calling or messaging friends for help during the exam, using Google to search for answers on a separate device, or asking parents to read through answers prior to submission.
