On the agenda were the Education and Examination Regulations for bachelor’s and master’s programmes in the coming academic year. The definition of fraud has been tightened at the request of the Board of Examiners, director of bachelor’s programmes Kaj Thomsson told the council. The committee already assumes that group work is actually done together, and not as the set of individual sub-tasks students sometimes turn it into. Therefore, the entire group is responsible if, for example, a plagiarized passage is found. However “unfair” that may be to well-intentioned students, that assignment must be redone.
"Intentionally or unintentionally"
There is no way around it, Thomsson argued: “Otherwise, group work loses its meaning, students can pit groupmates against each other, and the Board of Examiners can no longer do its job.” While the latter can punish individual students in addition to invalidating the assignment, proving who did what is difficult, Thomsson said. So from now on, fraud will be defined in the EER as acts that “intentionally” or “unintentionally” make it impossible to properly assess a student's knowledge and skills.
Marc van Ekert, council member for academic staff, concluded that it’s essential to “communicate clearly and early [to students]: ‘If this happens, you are all screwed.’” And preferably, said student member Maurits Loonen (DOPE), “in the [course] syllabus, not in regulations that nobody reads.”
The council, incidentally, unanimously agreed to the revised regulations.