When some students are worried they might fail their examinations,
they beg their teachers for help with their marks. Now
Peking University is
to regard these students as cheats. New regulations issued this
term introduce a category know as cheating after the exam.
In
addition, Peking University is to adopt a strict system which will
eliminate students with the very lowest scores. It is estimated
this will lead to the lowest performing 2 percent of students being
put off campus every year.
Starting in the new semester, Peking University will no longer
accept a 100-percent pass rate in its examinations. Instead, there
is now a requirement for 1-2 percent of students to fail. It will
be unacceptable for a teacher to assess every student as passing
the examination in a particular subject.
According to Prof. Li Kean, academic dean of Peking University,
undergraduates generally pick up 2 to 3 credits from each subject.
From this term students, who only manage 15 credits during their
four years of study, will be rusticated. This is a major change for
students who would previously have been allowed to repeat their
studies.
The new undergraduate examination regulations impose heavy
penalties for plagiarism in written work. Those found after
investigation to have plagiarized or fabricated statistics in their
coursework will incur a minimum penalty of a warning. Where this is
a "serious" warning, the student will receive no credits for the
subject. In the case of particularly severe breaches like
plagiarism or fabrication of statistics in a graduation paper, a
demerit will be recorded. The effect of a demerit is to strip the
student of his or her BA with all credits counted as zero.
Requests to teachers to alter results or cover up cheating,
accompanied by entreatment, gifts, banquets or threats will now be
considered as post-examination cheating and be dealt with much like
any other form of cheating.
Senior officials at Peking University emphasized that strictly
regulated examinations are only a means to an end, not an end goal.
However such measures are necessary to foster high quality teaching
and cultivate world class graduates. Rigid enforcement of
assessment discipline is one measure that is known to be
effective.
(china.org.cn by staff reporter Zheng Guihong, October 21,
2002)