In Canada, the University of Waterloo counted 1,340 incidents of cheating in the year ending this August, up 146 per cent on the previous 12 months. The University of Calgary said that cases of cheating had increased by 269 per cent, with most of the cases occurring after the onset of the pandemic in March.
In Australia, Queensland University of Technology said in September that test-related cheating had quadrupled. Rates doubled at the University of Houston, one of several Texas institutions encountering large jumps this autumn.
In the UK, the Quality Assurance Agency reported that Covid-19 had “accelerated” the growth of contract cheating, with 904 essay mills providing ghost-written texts now known to be operating in the country.
