HANOI UNIVERSITY
FOUNDATION STUDIES DEPARTMENT
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ACADEMIC CHEATING
IN VIETNAM
Teacher: Tran Thuy Hang
Student: Pham Xuan Hoang
Class: 3TN-06
Course: EAP – Writing
Date: May 30, 2007
ABSTRACT
Academic cheating is a serious problem in Vietnam
nowadays. This paper, based on secondary research,
discusses three questions of how students cheat, why so
many students engage in cheating and what steps have
been taken to solve this matter. Particularly, academic
cheating in Vietnam has developed remarkably in both
popularity in complicatedness due to many reasons,
which come from both students and teachers alike.
However, many effective measures have been taken to put
an end to cheating. Finally, the paper draws the
conclusion that although academic cheating is still
popular at the present, there is actually hope that it can
be eliminated in the future.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ................................................................................................................. ii
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1
2. Discussion of findings ...................................................................................... 1
2.1. How Vietnamese students cheat nowadays .................................... 1
2.2. Why students cheat .......................................................................... 2
2.3. What have been done to solve academic cheating ......................... 4
3. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 4
References ............................................................................................................ 6
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1. Introduction
Academic cheating, or in other words, academic dishonesty, is hardly a new problem in
the world today. Especially in Vietnam, this matter has long become a national issue, a
burden for all the educators across the country. In fact, there are well enough reasons to
worry as academic cheating in Vietnam has over the years developed rapidly in both
popularity and complicatedness. A survey among 2,000 students, which was carried out
by The Ministry of Education and Training’s inspectors in 2006, resulted in 89%
admitted having cheated at some point in their studies (Huong, 2006). The Quan Doi
Nhan Dan online also gave examples of many “suspiciously” outstanding results in many
examination sites after the 2006 High School Graduation Exam, among which there was
a room with all 24 students getting equal or above 9 at Mathematics. Such unreasonable
numbers require education authorities to take immediate actions to prevent the cheating
epidemic from developing any further. However, to tackle this problem is a timeconsuming process and it demands a thorough knowledge on many aspects of cheating.
Therefore, this paper, with the purpose of helping stop academic cheating, discusses the
questions of how Vietnamese students cheat nowadays, why so many of them engage in
cheating and what steps authorities have taken so far to solve this serious matter.
2. Discussion of findings
2.1. How Vietnamese students cheat nowadays
Methodology is the most crucial part in doing everything and in students’ cheating plans,
it is by no means less important. According to the Academic Cheating Fact Sheet on the
website glass-castle.com, academic cheating can assume many forms which include
“sharing another's work, purchasing a term paper or test questions in advance, paying
another to do the work for you”. However, Vietnamese students’ ways to do all these
tasks vary greatly to the surprise of many students themselves.
Up until now, the traditional type of questions, meaning students read the questions and
write down their answers, still reigns most of the exams in the country. Its long lasting
existence has given students enough time to invent many methods to get around teachers’
supervision. The most common way is to have a miniature photo-copy of the book,
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carefully put it in the sleeve and look at it when out of teachers’ view. This method,
though takes a lot of time to prepare and practise, still proves to be very helpful despite
an early invention because teachers rarely care to check students’ bodies before allowing
them to take the tests. However, nowadays, even students have nothing to bring into the
classroom, they still do not have to worry as there are many good peers in there to help
them whenever they are in troubles. These peers are normally competent students and this
method can be called “students cooperating to cheat”. The process initially requires
reading answers for others to write down but now it no longer involves verbal actions: a
student does their work, filling his/her draft paper at the same time, then give it to others
when teachers are careless. Everything looks perfectly normal, just like a machine
silently works. Then another question pops up – what if students do not know anyone in
the room? The answer is, this is where technology comes into the picture. A small
earphone stuck into the ear, with a person having answers at the other end, is more than
enough to pass the exam. The good thing about this method is safety since teachers
usually find it very hard to detect students wearing earphones.
Besides cheating in exams, plagiarism is another problem which prevails at tertiary level.
Copying other people’s work has become so popular thanks to the endless information
sources on the Internet (B.D, 2006). Students only need several minutes surfing the
World Wide Web to get a hold of millions of successful papers written all over the globe.
All that is left for them to do is pasting all the words into their own papers, having to spill
no sweat at all. Plagiarising seems impossible to be detected and monitored, especially in
Vietnam, where term and research papers do not go to the Internet but are sold with
surprisingly cheap prices in public, making it even harder for university professors to tell
between an excellent paper and a good copy.
2.2. Why students cheat
The authorities’ determination to stop academic cheating has encouraged them to find the
reasons why so many students commit such inappropriate actions. It goes without saying
that everybody knows cheating is wrong, yet still willing to do it. There must be some
underlying causes to explain this situation.
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Dennis Prager, one of the USA’s most respected talk-show hosts, the author of several
books and a frequent guest on such prestigious shows such as The Larry King Live or The
O'Reilly Factor, has given his ideas on the matter. His reasons, though formed in
American context, are still applicable in Vietnam’s society. According to Prager, there
are three “major reasons” for academic cheating. First, character is pale as compared to
many things in parents’ point of view. For instance, smoking, to them, is far worse than
their children cheating at school since they think health is more important than building
up a good character. Second, it is the obsession of getting accepted by best colleges that
encourages cheating. Both parents and children love good universities and prestigious
schools so achieving high grades is a must. And the last reason, as Prager claimed, is the
concept of sin is not as solid as it was before. While a great number of students cheat on a
regular basis, a far greater number see nothing wrong with it. Right and wrong are
understood differently by different people, thus cheating can be either a crime or a
perfectly normal thing to do. The three reasons are quite persuasive and obviously very
easy to see. Under all those influences and pressures, cheating among students seems
almost inevitable.
Nevertheless, students are not the only ones to blame in Vietnam when even schools and
teachers also play an important role in encouraging cheating, which is proven on the
Education and Training Network of Vietnam (http://edu.net.vn). The website claims that
the race for excellent results among schools is the most serious reason for the dishonesty
in study. In almost every part of the country, the sight of teachers leaving students
cheating freely is not so hard to find. They have to do all that to maintain the school’s
reputation of education, which they themselves are not even sure of. Besides the care for
results, the question of whether teachers really love their profession is also considered.
The majority of Vietnamese teachers today have cram classes along with their official
classes at school and they often do not have enough time to improve their knowledge on
the subjects. Therefore, it is understandable that teachers choose the solution of reducing
exam questions’ level of difficulty to make sure the students get satisfying grades, thus
proving that they do not take school work for granted. All these actions subconsciously
encourage cheating though teachers may not be aware of it.
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2.3. What have been done to solve academic cheating?
Cheating in study obviously cannot be tolerated. In fact, Vietnamese education
authorities have recently adopted some new and strong measures to prevent students from
cheating.
Tightening monitoring work in exams is the first thing to be done seriously. Careful
supervision should detect any suspicious behaviours of students no matter how well they
try to hide. Actions of cheating tend to repeat after a certain period of time because
students need to do a whole process over and over to have all the answers. By monitoring
exam rooms with care, teachers can definitely tell which student is not doing their work
in an appropriate way.
Technology is a very good ally in the battle against academic dishonesty (Khoi N.K.,
quoted by BBC Vietnamese, 2007). This year, the software responsible for organizing
students in an exam room has been upgraded. Thanks to that, students will be placed
randomly, no students with the same name can sit next to each others, thus reducing the
risk of students asking other people to take the exam for them. Another use of technology
is taking advantage of mobile signal-detecting devices in exam sites (Ngoc Q.T., quoted
by B.D, 2006). However, this measure seems rather desperate and somewhat impractical
with Vietnam’s current condition.
Regarding the plagiarising problem in universities and colleges, there are no better ways
than publicizing all the old papers on the Internet (Ngoc Q.T, quoted by B.D, 2006). Even
though Internet is really a huge space, it is still easier to manage than many “papers
market” out in the streets. Copying papers from the Internet will soon be discovered one
way or another. Moreover, if teachers find a paper suspicious, an actual interview will
help them draw the final conclusion.
3. Conclusion
From all the findings above, it is clear that academic cheating in Vietnam is still a really
huge problem. It has developed greatly and assumed a lot of different forms over the
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years. Another sad fact is that there are yet many reasons for people to commit cheating,
which cannot be solved any time soon. However, there are also reasons to believe
academic dishonesty will be stopped in the future thanks to authorities’ determination and
the adoption of many practical measures. Then, hopefully, none will ever have to seek
help in such dishonest ways as copying or plagiarising other people’s works.
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REFERENCES
1. 2004, Nạn quay cóp trong thi cử - thử tìm nguyên nhân từ phía nhà trường [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.edu.net.vn/Default.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=2&mid=42&tid=132&iid=
838
(Accessed May 27, 2007).
2. 2006, Phát hiện hàng loạt gian dối trong kỳ tốt nghiệp THPT [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.qdnd.vn/qdnd/baongay.xahoi.giaoduc.1875.qdnd
(Accessed May 27, 2007).
3. Academic Cheating Fact Sheet [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.glass-castle.com/clients/www-nocheatingorg/adcouncil/research/cheatingfactsheet.html
(Accessed May 18, 2007).
4. BBC Vietnamese, 2007, Chống gian lận thi cử bằng phần mềm [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/story/2007/03/070306_examfraud.shtml
(Accessed May 27, 2007).
5. B.D., 2006, Gian lận thi cử thời hi-tech [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.khoahoc.com.vn/view.asp?Cat_ID=2&news_id=6809
(Accessed May 27, 2007).
6. Huong, L., 2006, Dùng “độc chiêu” đối phó “độc chiêu” quay cóp [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.vietnamnet.vn/giaoduc/chuyengiangduong/2006/12/646331/
(Accessed May 27, 2007).
7. Prager, D. 2002, Why So Many Students Cheat [online]
Available at URL:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27246
(Accessed May 18, 2007).
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