Cheating, foreign interference, cyber hacking and academic integrity will be policed at universities by a federally funded “Education Integrity Unit” to be announced today.
Key points:
- It is estimated between 6 and 10 per cent of Australian university students cheat during their studies
- The new unit will crackdown on the practice and will be instructed to seek Federal Court injunctions
- The Federal Government announcement comes just days after it flagged sweeping reforms to its tertiary education funding packages
The unit, which will have a $3.9 million annual budget, will aim to protect Australia’s tertiary sector from “research and intellectual property theft” with a particular focus on students who cheat.
The unit will be instructed to seek Federal Court injunctions to shut down the online essay factories or so-called “contract cheating” that has turbocharged and commercialised since large-scale cheati