RICHMOND (AP) — A committee formed by the head of the University of Virginia’s economics department is investigating how to handle an incident in which first-year graduate students used an answer key they discovered on the Internet to complete an assignment.
A large number of the 30-member class was involved in last month’s incident, in which at least one student shared information found on an online answer key containing solutions to some problem sets used in an introductory graduate economics course, said David Mills, economics department chairman.
“The assignment was given for students to do individually. So whenever students turn in work that they have collaborated on when they were told to work independently, then that’s a violation of the rules,” Mr. Mills said. “It really calls for a response.”
At the least, the students were bending the rules, he said, “and it might just be an episode of outright cheating.”
The University of Virginia’s honor system is one of nation’s oldest. It prohibits lying, cheating or stealing, and the only penalty for breaking the code is dismissal from school.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.