AUSTIN, TX - JANUARY 7: The University of Texas Tower is lit burnt orange with a number 1 in ... [+]
Cheating in college is a big problem. Surveys show that more than half of all college students admit to cheating at least once and some surveys show that figure in the 70, even 80 percent range.
With no government or accrediting oversight or even awareness of academic misconduct, schools have been left on their own to try to deter it, detect it and deal with it when it happens – which is pretty nearly always. Some do it well. Others don’t do it at all.
But if two Texas universities win their case in the Texas Supreme Court, the schools that actually care about cheating and academic integrity could get a new weapon in their fights.
The University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University have asked the Court for permission to revoke awarded degrees when academic misconduct is discovered after graduation.
The case is about two students who were awarded PhD degrees, one in organic chemistry and another in biology. Years after graduation and after the two had taken up careers in these fields, the schools discovered misconduct in their academic work and want to invalidate their degrees.
For the two former students, the consequences could be significant including loss of job and public embarrassment.
For the schools though, the stakes may be even higher. If the schools win, it could extend the window of consequences to a literal lifetime and, more significantly, allow schools to manage what their degrees mean, even after they are conferred.
It seems obvious that a school would have a strong interest in barring someone from claiming a degree they do not have or, in this case, from having one they did not earn. After all, deciding who did and who did not meet the requirements of graduation is a primary job function of every school. As the lawyers for the schools told the Court, not being able to revoke a degree for known cheating would harm the schools’ “reputations and the value of degrees conferred upon their students.”
True.
Moreover, limiting a degree to a lifelong certification regardless of circumstance seems like it would require a school to lie for a student forever if the student got away with lying to the school just one time. If you liken cheating to stealing – and it is – not allowing schools to revoke a degree for cheating is akin to letting a bank robber keep their loot so long as they get away clean the first time.
“You can't get a job as a scientist without your Ph.D. doing what my client does,” an attorney for the accused former students told the Court.
Here’s the thing though – it’s not clear at all that the client actually has a PhD. Or at least they have not demonstrated the ability to deserve one. As such, maybe they should not have the job, a job that requires it. All of which is to say that “if you take away my client’s stolen money, she can’t afford to live in such a nice house” does not feel like the greatest argument.
In learning about the Texas case, many academic observers and experts have been surprised that schools did not have the ability to revoke a degree already. The truth is that they probably do, or did. But the power has been used so infrequently that no one has ever been in position to challenge it until now.
If the universities get confirmation of their revocability ability and other schools take that cue, the consequences for academic integrity could be huge. First, and even though it’s unlikely to happen, some schools may jump into action to police their conferred degrees actively, reaffirming the value of the degree and the values of the institution.
More significantly, awareness that cheating in college could result in losing your degree, even years down the line, may dissuade some from attempting it. Since there’s good evidence that academic cheating is very often the result of calculated risk/reward analysis, increasing the risk is an important element of prevention.
In other words, even if degree revocation remains rare, simply confirming it’s possible could reverberate through colleges and universities, everywhere students are making choices about their academic work. Escalating cheating penalties from a zero grade or, at worst, some kind of academic probation to job loss and having wasted years of time and thousands of dollars to not have a college degree – that’s a different calculation entirely. Maybe some students will think twice. Since preventing cheating is the best possible outcome, let’s hope so.
Even outside academia, the case may matter too. If you’re in a business or in a position to hire or consider job applicants, knowing that a school cares about cheating – having confidence that the degree translates to actual learning or ability – is important. With cheating as common as it is, investing in the value of a degree, as the University of Texas and Texas State want to do, is a win. Or at least it should be.
