Med-school exams cancelled in Thailand after high-tech cheaters nabbed

09 May 2016

AN entrance examination for a medical school was forcibly cancelled in Thailand on Sunday after three proxies were caught sitting in for candidates, using high-tech gadgetry such as spy glasses and smart watches to cheat in the papers.

The Rangsit University (RSU) cancelled the exams to its college of medicine and two other faculties after it learned that proxies were sitting the exams in place of three candidates. The proxies had used devices that were provided by a syndicate.

Following the discovery, the university has asked over 3,000 candidates to do a re-test scheduled for May 31 and June 1.

According to The Bangkok Post, the RSU cited “cheating carried out by a well-organised syndicate and the use of electronic devices” as the cause of the cancellation of the exams last weekend.

Spy glasses used to record footage of the exam papers

RSU academic affairs vice president Nares Pantaratorn said a private tutoring center near the campus had provided the gadgets to the proxies, who each donned the glasses equipped with micro cameras.

At first, exam facilitators were not aware of the proxies’ ploy but suspected something was amiss when all three left the exam room simultaneously as soon as the 45-minute requirement lapsed.

During the break, the cheaters had used laptops to transfer footage of the papers to the tutoring center which later sent the answers to them via the smart watches.

Nares also told the paper that the three proxies had confessed to being paid 6,000 baht (US$170) each and a police report was filed to charge them. Only one student, he said, admitted to the wrongdoing.

The syndicate had sent the answers to the smart watches.

“Now we are trying to persuade the other two kids who have yet to confess to give us information so that we can take [legal] action against that tutoring academy to the fullest extent,” he was quoted saying.

The tutoring center, which the student approached, is said to have offered 100% guarantees in passing the exams.

He said the student had purportedly made a 50,000 baht (US$1,400) deposit to the cheating ring who passed him the smart watch. Another 800,000 (US$22,800) baht would be needed to be added if he had passed the exam.

“This is an unacceptable act in academic circles. We will take both civil and criminal action because there were many students who had paid a great deal of money to attend the May 7-8 exams,” he said.

Nares added the university would conduct tighter screenings on candidates before they entered the exam rooms for the upcoming re-test.

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This article first appeared on Asian Correspondent