Thailand student candidates busted for high-tech exam cheating
Mon 9 May 2016
A group of candidate students in Thailand have been foiled in their collective attempt to use smartwatches and concealed cameras to cheat their way into places at a prestigious university. Some were applying to become medical students.
The three students were undergoing examination tests for the college of medicine and other departments at the private Rangsit University in Lak Hok.
Having sought out the services of an unnamed private tutoring institute in the city, they came into the examination hall at the weekend equipped with smartwatches. At the same time the institute sent three proxies to sit the exam, who used cameras hidden in glasses to glean the entire exam. After 45 minutes the proxies exited and mailed footage of the exams to the institute, where experts hurriedly transmitted answers to the smartwatches of the three candidates.
Invigilators were alerted to the scam by the fact that the proxies all left at the expiry of the minimum time requirement, and left very close to each other.
The rector of the university, Arthit Ourairat, posted pictures of the devices employed in the cheat to a post on his Facebook page, which subsequently went viral on social media in Thailand. The university also announced on its official website that the entrance exams would be re-held for all valid candidates at no extra charge on the 31st of May and the 1st of June.
The university has filed charges against the three individuals who facilitated the exam leak, and vice president of Rangsit’s academic affairs Nares Pantaratorn told the Bangkok Post that the culprits took a deposit of 50,000 baht (£986/$1419) for the loan of the smartwatches, with the requirement to pay another 800,000 baht (£15,770/$22,730) upon successful completion of the examination.
The university is reported to be considering allowing students no greater technology than a pencil in future examinations, with glasses to be assiduously checked for concealed cameras.
Pantaratorn commented “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… 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.”
