Search Page

Examination standards are virtually impossible to reinforce in a distance-learning environment where hundreds of students are simultaneously online. The Dean of the University of Crete’s literature department reports that it is easy for students to Google exam answers even under the eye of supervisors on camera. A 20- year-old student said that one of her friends gave 100 euros to a teacher to sit for her math exam. Similarly, a 20-year-old psychology student took exams on behalf of 2 of her friends and nobody realized.

More than 100 Greek university students have been caught in a mass cheating scandal. The group at the University of Patras, most of them first-year students, submitted the same paperwork in four separate coursework exercises, the head of the business management department said. The university banned the 106 students from sitting the rest of their exams in September. According to an associate professor, of all the possible sanctions, this is the mildest. Greek universities are ranked among the lowest in the European Union, plagued by student protests, staffing nepotism and poor infrastructure.

For years, Greek higher education has been operating a system in which academic freedom has been interpreted in a broad context and has been used to justify a range of otherwise unethical and even illegal actions. Almost all stakeholders, including Greece's political parties, have taken advantage of the loose interpretation of academic freedom.