1,500 students at Irish universities have been caught cheating, plagiarising work, or using 'essay mills' since 2019.
The highest numbers were reported at Trinity College Dublin and Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin) with more than 1,000 instances of students trying to cheat at exams or in assignments at the two universities, the Independent reports. There were 33 cases of suspected exam-cheating and 138 cases of students plagiarising work for their assignments during the most recent academic year.
TU Dublin said it had dealt with 568 cases where students were deemed to have breached exam regulations or plagiarised work. TU Dublin said the cases the university had dealt with resulted in the expulsion of two students from the college during the past three years.
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Meanwhile Trinity College Dublin said it had 445 cases of suspected cheating in the academic years between 2019 and 2021 and that figures for last year were not yet available. The university reported 143 cases of plagiarism and 154 cases of cheating for the academic year 2020/21.
There were no students had been expelled or suspended during that period. Maynooth University said it had just over 200 instances of cheating, while DCU had 99.
University College Cork (UCC) reported almost no cases over the last three years with just one case of plagiarism logged in the academic year 2019/20.
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