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With many students forced to trade in-person lectures for online learning during the pandemic and the rising cases of academic misconduct, students, as well as professors, are concerned about the software being used to assess them. The vice-president of the University of Alberta Students’ Union (UMSU) says black students have had problems where the application doesn't recognize their faces. Other students with disabilities reported that they rely on specific screen-reader software that is incompatible with remote proctoring software. Although professors recognize that some courses may require e-proctored exams, they want them to be implemented correctly.

There has been an increase in academic misconduct at Mount Royal University from 62 cases between March and August in 2019 to 130 cases this year. They include cheating, sharing answers or work, plagiarism, and misrepresenting facts or information that gives a person an unfair academic advantage over other students. The university is also looking at programs for e-proctoring and student integrity that would lend to preventing misconduct.

Media have reported allegations of creative cheating strategies at universities across Canada, including hacking grades, bribery and breaking into offices to steal exams. A survey conducted at 11 Canadian higher institutions showed that 50 per cent of undergraduate students have committed some form of academic misconduct.

After a surge in enrolment of international students, accompanied by a spike in cases of academic misconduct including plagiarism and using prohibited materials on exams, St. Clair College, in Windsor, created the position of academic integrity coordinator. Fanshawe College which had 852 academic offenses in 2016-18, with 907 the flowing year, plans to create a similar position.

Scientists from the University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Hospital and other top-tier institutions across Canada keep publishing their results in fake science journals, tainting the work despite years of warnings. One veteran science publisher warns all the work that produced these studies “is just thrown away.” Until recently, the scope of the problem of “predatory” journals has been hard to measure. Now, one giant in the fake publishing field, OMICS International of India, has improved the search engine for 700 journals. Hundreds of Canadian scientists were found to have published recently with the Indian firm — the same company that accepted this newspaper’s analysis of how pigs fly.

The association representing Canada’s university professors has condemned Carleton University’s board of governors for a new policy that will ban board members from speaking publicly about the meetings they attend. The professors say the move is a violation of transparency and openness that is fundamental to academic freedom. The board has also moved to ban faculty and student union representatives from sitting on the board, claiming they are in conflict of interest.