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Despite allegations of students cheating, the University of South Africa (Unisa) holds its stance that it will not conduct in-person examinations.
On Wednesday the Unisa management in Pretoria, briefed the press on its allegations of cheating.
Last month over 15 000 students were flagged by the university’s digital platform for plagiarism, copying and cheating.
Unfortunately, innocent students were also affected.
The university said it felt the need to address the issue because this had become a public issue considering that this was not the first time accusations of a cheating scandal had surfaced.
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The management of Unisa refuted the allegations of sending a letter to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande begging to not be put under administration.
“Unisa has never written such a letter to the minister, however, we can confirm that discussions did take place between the lawyers of the minister and the university.
A meeting between Blade Nzimande‘s and Unisa’s legal representatives took place in February, where a settlement proposal letter was given to Unisa by the minister.
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Professor Vuyo Peach said the letter was tweaked by City Press. Furthermore Peach stated that the matter was handed over to the judiciary to be dealt with.
Unisa’s director of Student Assessment Dominic Molokoane addressed the criteria to which students are assessed and invigilated when writing tests or exams to mitigate and resolve cheating concerns.
Molokoane said they set up a QR code that monitors, records and ensures that students do not cheat while writing their exams.
Molokoane said this microphone test helps them to detect if students discuss the contents of the test.
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Students recordings are then sent to a relevant academic to review whether indeed the students were engaging each other on the assessment content.
“We also have a GPS locator which determines if students are sitting together,” he added.
Furthermore, he added that the app regulates and compares similarities in students’ scripts.
Molokoane shared concern about the stark contrast in the number of students who take up mock exams and the number of students who actually write the exams.
The acting Vice principal of institutional development at Unisa Ramakgwayi Mahano, strongly asserted that they will not revert to writing “venue-based” examinations.
“The advancements that the university has made in moving to online modalities are dearly cherished by the organisation and we believe that it is the right direction that the organisation should actually take and maintain,” he said.
However, Mahano said this decision is not relevant to the accounting sciences college which would take a hybrid approach instead as a recommendation from the South African Institute of Accounting (Saica).
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