A number of KU students are working in teams to find new ways to cheat the academic system.

RiverOnline can reveal that some students have moved beyond skipping classes and asking their friends to sign them on the register, and are now ‘tag teaming’ assignments to gain a degree with the minimum amount of effort.

Students involved in ‘tag teaming ’ work together in a group, with each individual student completing just one assignment but doing it for everyone in the group, altering or rewording each piece slightly for each one.

One second year student who admitted to ‘tag teaming’ said: “I do enjoy my course. But enjoying it and doing all the work for it, is different isn’t it? This means I only have to do one out of four essays. I do read it before I submit it and I change some sentences to fit how I’d write it, but I don’t properly read it or anything...He gets good grades, so I trust him.”

The extent of the problem is unknown, but RiverOnline spoke to a number of students who were undertaking this plagiarising practice.

Plagiarism is an ongoing problem at Kingston, and the university plans to hold a week dedicated to tackling the issue. The latest available figures also show that in one year 150 students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and over 88 students in the Faculty of Business were found guilty of plagiarism.

One tag teaming student noted: "I don’t know how widespread it is, but other people will probably do it because it’s so easy. My course isn’t an ideas subject, it’s mainly facts so it’s all right or wrong, you can’t work out who’s copied what.”

Surprisingly, students who ‘tag team’ are not worried about being caught by the University, which could be due to a lack of awareness of University penalties. One student said: “We’ve been doing it for a while. We started in our first year and have never been caught so we’ve kept doing it. What can they do about it? I don’t think they’ll ever find out.”

Lorraine Allibone, the University’s Academic Skills Centre's Project Manager said: “The University is dedicated to educating its students about the principles of good academic practice and takes plagiarism and cheating very seriously. Plagiarism is viewed as theft within the academic community which is why there are a range of penalties in place including failure and/or exclusion.”

“They’re cheats and they don’t deserve a degree"

Another popular tactic that KU students use to cheat the academic system is to lie on registers. Many students who do not attend classes are asking their course mates to write their names down on registers on their behalf.

The top reason why KU students decide to miss classes is because the material will be uploaded onto Blackboard. Five drama students claim they attend every lesson because material for their course is not always available on Blackboard and the teacher takes the register.         

The majority of KU students interviewed branded these tactics “disgusting”. One third year student said: “They’re cheats and they don’t deserve a degree”.

The Plagiarism Awareness Week will be held by the University’s Academic Skills Centre later this year. Students who are concerned about plagiarism can also book one to one appointments with the Centre.