Want to stop student cheating? Then stop giving tacit permission

During my 10 years as a University Lecturer in Australia I tried to stop the students from cheating, but my Head of School, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and Vice-Chancellor all turned a "blind eye" as they were pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year - one of these was caught with $500,000 in a secret Singapore bank account. When I spoke out against this practice of an "A for a Lay" or cash in hand, it was me who was "investigated" and bullied, harassed, and discriminated against resulting in a "Kangaroo Court" deciding to cancel my tenure because I "did not belong to the majority group that took bribes etc". The end result is that today's graduates may have their degree, but it is without knowledge.

'it was permissible to cheat because grades – not learning – are all that matters' I fear this is the place HE in the UK has reached. Just go to any formal university meeting and evaluate how much time and energy is spent on discussing grades when contrasted with with time spent discussing learning. As HE has become a commodity the students are only playing by the rules of the game.

The title of the article is somewhat misleading compared to its content. Do not blame others for what is your lack of virtue. Students or anyone else chose to cheat out of a lack of integrity and moral courage, regardless of whether the situation encourages it or not. Blaming the environment for one's moral transgressions is akin to saying 'You CAN'T blame me for robbing a bank, look how poor their security system is...?'. The problem is not the university, nor HE, nor the system, nor the govt etc etc etc... the problem is YOUR lack of moral integrity and courage to do the right thing EVEN in the most tempting and challenging of circumstances. When Prof Nigel Biggar, a Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford, was asked what was the one thing we are not talking about, his answer was virtue: https://youtu.be/ZRUD4uqFUvw?t=3611 Among the various things he said, which I agree, we keep talking about our rights but less about our virtues. Rights inform us what we can do, virtue informs us what we OUGHT to do and how we OUGHT to go about achieving those rights. In this context, does cheating just to achieve a good degree a virtuous way to go about it? You can get away with it doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. No system can prevent cheating because humans are incredibly creative to find loopholes and alternatives to cheat. It is also not the solution to the lack of virtue among students who choose to cheat. Call it for what it is.