Exam delayed over cheating allegations
The Otago Daily Times has been told information was disseminated after a student took the company law exam a day early due to a timetable conflict.
A spokeswoman for the university did not comment on the details of the alleged cheating, but confirmed the exam had been postponed and "an investigation is under way into what has occurred".
"The law faculty dean made the difficult decision to postpone the exam on Friday.
"For the affected students, a new exam will be run on Wednesday for those who can make it, and a second version will be run in the special exam period at the start of semester 2."
Company law is a 400-level paper about "what a company incorporated under the Companies Act 1993 is and how it operates", the university's website said.
Universities New Zealand chief executive Dr Chris Whelan said all New Zealand universities took cheating or other allegations of academic misconduct very seriously, and all had very vigorous and clear policies on the matter.
"At Universities New Zealand, we work with the sector to enable the sharing of information and best practice in the wake of new technologies and other changes and challenges, but how each university implements and responds to incidents is up to them."
Otago University's latest academic misconduct report showed there were 55 examples of misconduct last year, of which four related to exams and 51 to internal assessments.
This compared with 79 examples in 2023, of which 12 related to exams and 67 to internal assessment.
matthew.littlewood@odt.co.nz
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