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Cheating Scandal Sweeps Japan’s Top Universities

March 2, 2011, 2:28 pm

Four of Japan’s top universities are embroiled in a cheating scandal that has received widespread media attention in the country. Japan’s education ministry, the police, and the universities are investigating suspicions that students used cellphones to cheat on entrance examinations. The Daily Yomiuri reports that the students posted exam questions during tests to an online bulletin board, which were subsequently answered—mostly incorrectly—by its readers. The police have begun a criminal investigation and asked the nation’s largest Internet operator, Yahoo, to provide protocol addresses that might identify the cheaters at Kyoto, Waseda, Doshisha, and Rikkyo Universities, reports The Japan Times. Waseda alone is checking the answers of almost 10,000 students who sat an English exam for the prestigious School of Liberal Arts.

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  • sgorovitz

    No, John Couri is not chair of the Board of Trustees. He was chair at the time of the gift. He was succeeded by John Chapple, who is in his final semester as Board Chair now, following a controversial period of leadership. It is unknown who will chair the board for the forthcoming controversial period of leadership..

  • kquinn1121

    I want point out that the student newspaper did not give an accurate portrayal of the status of this project. It is untrue that a dismal giving season has stalled this project. The project is not stalled, is very much alive, and continues to be in the planning and development phase. We are re-conceptualizing the use of technology as part of the Visitors Center, especially in the area of mobile apps, to ensure we fully utilize the latest technology to tell our story and engage campus visitors.

    Syracuse has had outstanding fundraising results in recent years, having raised more in the past four years than ever before – nearly $500 million in total. During this time, our donors have focused their giving, rightly so, on supporting scholarships and academic programs that have an immediate impact on students and families. Moving forward, our national alumni board has been very interested in the Visitors Center project and undertaking efforts to raise additional support for it.

  • sullivab

    I don’t know: tell a bunch of testosterone- & beer-addled 19-year-olds that there is no way that they can tip these things over, and they will undoubtedly rise to the challenge. Seriously though, this is a pretty clever idea. Bravo to ANU, Hutchinson Builders, and their Chinese partners for developing this “inside the box” (so to speak) solution.

  • tdb489

    I’ve seen this in South Africa though the containers are not stacked, they are used as individual houses. They are insufferably hot in the summer and cold in the winter regardless of ventilation. It is semi-suitable for people who earn less than $5.00 per day. It is despicable that HDCs can no longer afford traditional housing. I called the international faculty housing in South Korea a shanty house for immigrants. I will NEVER endure such indignities again.

  • beverlypwood

    Glad to see they have drainage and “flashing”, is that peculiar to Australian students? Hope they will stand the test of time, they do not look very stable or ready for longevity.

  • chemteach

    Some of the comments here indicate that the readers did not understand these are not the standard shipping containers. Rather, the company who produces shipping containers in China, was asked to make these containers to order.

  • Student_Advocate2

    I believe you are misunderstanding the question. I do not believe Dr. Donaghoe was asking why military students are choosing online schools, rather he was questioning the sudden interest many admissions departments have in the military student. And in that perspective, my answer is the correct one.

    Schools who received federal funding through the government are not permitted to accept more than 90% of their revenue through government programs. At least 10% of the monies they bring in must be from some other source (students paying cash for classes, employer reimbursement, or obtaining their own private loans) or they stand to lose their ability to participate, and thus receive funding from the federal financial aid program. For “some reason” the monies received through the GI Bill and veteran’s benefits do not count toward that limit of 90%, as if those monies were not also coming through a government program. It is a loophole that allows schools to actually receive 93 – 94% of their funding…directly from government sources. It is ever so much easier to get money from the government than it is to find people who are willing to pay cash as they go.

    I’m sorry, I wish I could assure you that these schools appreciate your sacrifice and are patriotic and want to do “right by our soldiers”…but that simply would not be true. Military funding is a cash cow to them.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/ProprietaryEd ForProfitEd

    adanz1 said:

    “appreciate the innovation brought by the “for-profit” schools to education”

    So, you believe chicanery is innovative?

    “Students at for-profit schools pay 100% of the cost of their education”

    Students pay for Pell grants? Really? I’m pretty sure that the Federal Government funds Pell via taxpayers. How about the state aid for-profits lobby so hard for locally. Take the recent California State grants for example.

    “nobody seems interested in understanding why students exercise individual choice to attend a for-profit school over a non-profit school”

    I think many people understand it as does the Dept of Ed. It is because they are uninformed about post secondary options, comparative costs, realistic outcomes and they are told whatever they want to hear by commissioned sales representatives (aka Admissions Counselors).

    Sounds like you had a company meeting today, and you bought what you were fed.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/ProprietaryEd ForProfitEd

    Intered Inc Robert Tucker? Sounds right on.

    Check out forprofitedu.com (for-profit education industry site) discussing “How big a deal is tuition cost”
    from: http://www.forprofitedu.com/admissions/how-big-a-deal-is-tuition-cost/

    “How big a deal is the sticker price/Tuition cost in enrollents & conversions

    The cost of tuition is always a concern, however, its easily overcome by the cost benefit discussion of the value of a degree, the whole “make a million dollars more discussion” and all. Also, of you have a sharp group of rapid responders who establish a rapport with the prospects they most likely not even learn about the differences in tuition costs as they likely (if your reps. do their job right) won’t talk to another school. Clearly it has been established that if you get to the prospect first and do a solid job of establishing the value of the degree and solidifying the prospects desire they wont even take the other call with another school. If you do find yourself in the your tuition is much more discussion then you need to re-establish the “you get what you pay for” understanding as well as the degree now pay later principle.”

  • trendisnotdestiny

    This isn’t about getting what you paid for sunshine. This about legitimizing a new privatized model of education and turning a profit… Of course, in the beginning they sell against the problems in the system, but you have to ask yourself what are they going to replace the problems with…. The answer: is an equally expensive replacement of You’re On Your Own (YOYO)……

    Please do not troll here like you do not have a vested interest in this discussion. You remind me of another flavor of these people (http://www.alternet.org/media/149197/are_right-wing_libertarian_internet_trolls_getting_paid_to_dumb_down_online_conversations/?page=entire

  • http://twitter.com/#!/ProprietaryEd ForProfitEd

    trendisnotdestiny: Are you drunk?

  • lizziec

    If you are a middle-class (or higher SES) kid who went to a decent K-12 school and have a solid family (i.e. educated, or at least interested, parents), you’re not very likely to be suckered into a high-price/low-quality online for-profit “education”. The people who are targeted (intentionally, based on their inability to make a critical comparison) for these high-priced/low-quality programs offered by too many large, publicly-traded, for-profits are least able to make an informed decision and understand what they are signing on for.

    Paying $30,000 or more for an associate’s degree that is not transferrable to anywhere else (i.e. real university/college), that teaches you very little (see my comment on rigor in a previous post) and is NOT going to be recognized by employers as anything more than what a H.S. grad would bring to the table, is a particular affliction of the most vulnerable in our society. These people will for the most part never get work commensurate with the money they have invested, and after spending that kind of money and time, many are not willing or able to return to the local community college to get what they needed in the first place: coaching on reading and writing at a college level, support for learning difficulties (many poor people suffer from undiagnosed learning disabilities, including reading deficits, which make them pretty much doomed from the start in an online class).

  • lizziec

    I think forprofited is one of the good guys (great article on AlterNet, by the way – thanks for sharing!)

  • http://twitter.com/#!/ProprietaryEd ForProfitEd

    Thanks lizziec.

  • donhunt32

    Are veterans steered towards for profit?

    Well, I think that is a bigger question. While I don’t deny that advertisements may help veterans make the choice, there are other factors that really take the choice away from them.
    1. Most vets can’t attend full time while on active duty and as it takes much longer for them to make progress on their degree.

    2. Once they leave the military, the find it difficult to find jobs that will consider their experience in place of education.

    3. They need to get a well paying job sooner than later because their compensation while in the military isn’t a lot.

    4. Many have families and other responsibilities which make the urgency to get something quicker than later a necessity.

    5. Vet’s have to consider that they may still have to move around until they are able to get established.

    All these factors forces a vet to seek solutions that are flexible and that will be adaptable based on their lives which isn’t normally the traditional schools. If they start a degree program with a traditional school and have to relocate before they can complete, many schools won’t apply their credits the same way they were earned and thus makes it even harder to complete their degree.

    It simply becomes a matter of both need to earn a better living and a need to be able to get that done from where ever they are without loosing traction at every change in life events.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/ProprietaryEd ForProfitEd

    Very well said lizziec! Also, non-profit colleges tend to give realistic cost estimates. Online for-profit colleges “find the pain”, make the prospect “feel the pain”, give them a hard sell on “no out of pocket expense” and when mentioning tuition quote cost per credit hour or part time tuition for a 9 month “academic year” when the program requires attending classes all 12 months. For-profit colleges also tend to manipulate credit hours so that a student is actually attending part-time but they receive full-time FSA. Example 1 course, 2 courses, 1 course, 2 courses. This usually amounts a far longer time to completion than the admissions representative quoted the student during the hard sell phone conversation.

    Look at the forprofitedu.com link I posted above.

  • studentperspective

    I would like to talk with you further. Email me at studentwatchdog@gmail.com if you are interested.

  • Prof_truthteller

    But, the for-profits by definition are delivering profit to investors, much of which comes from federal financial aid funds aka our tax dollars. Public and non-profit colleges by definition do not make a profit, if there is by miracle any overage it is invested back into the institution to serve students.

  • Prof_truthteller

    “Traditional” is a misleading term, quills and parchment, maybe? If by ‘traditional’ you mean online, that’s been around since the 80s.

    There are many public and non-profit colleges that have fully online options for degrees and other training, all of which admit active military and accept military educational benefits and financial aid programs.

  • Prof_truthteller

    Taxpayer money that flows to higher education that is public, the taxpayer pays for it only once, and the graduates provide a multiplier effect on jobs and the economy that is well studied and well documented.

    Taxpayer money that flows to for-profit education, as much as a third of that profit flows directly into the pockets of investors. It’s really just a subsidy for the rich. The only multiplier effect that the rich have in the economy is in the high-end luxury goods market.

  • Prof_truthteller

    There are many legitimate and accredited colleges and universities, public and/or non-profit, that offer programs that meet the needs you list above. Many community colleges and universities offer degrees fully online. Online education has been around since the 80s, and the description “traditional” is not useful or accurate.

    But because online for-profits BUY top-of-the-search-list rankings from Google, and online public non-profits do not, many are steered to those colleges and are not even aware of public non-profit options listed down on page ten who did not purchase the Search Enginge Optimization (SEO) placement.

    Why do students go to http://www.fafsa.com and pay a fee to file their fafsa when they can go to http://www.fafsa.gov and file it for free?

  • Prof_truthteller

    The gibill.com domain is registered to:

    Quinstreet Inc
    1051 E. Hillsdale Blvd 8th Fl
    Foster City, CA 94404
    US
    650-578-7783

    Sitetrail is one of many tracking services that shows unique visitors: http://sitetrail.com/gibill.com

    Quinstreet is a media and marketing company, specializing in providing leads, so they have obviously registered the domain name on behalf of their (unknown) client(s). In addition to this doman, Quinstreet owns 2,710 other, similar domains. I’m guessing they are paid by many of the listed colleges. I have seen so many of these websites, I thought of starting my own. Easy money. I’m just too ethical and honest, can’t do it. here is a quote from their Feb 2, 2011 quarterly investor report:

    “Revenue for the Education client vertical was $43.2 million, an increase of 18% compared to the year-ago quarter. Excluding the effects from one large education client undergoing a previously disclosed change in its online marketing strategy, revenue for the Education client vertical grew 24%.” and, “Currently, primary client verticals are the education and financial services industries.”

  • jeeb47

    For me, the decision to leave my beloved “home” institution and state was based on my desire to advance to the next level in my administrative career with no place to go at my current, small institution.  At the next institution, I was forced to make a change and move to yet another state and administrative position which, so far, has been a great fit for me.  So while I didn’t really want to leave, circumstances forced me to make change and have new experiences which have enhanced my knowledge of higher education.  I have yet to find a new dentist in my current town, but I’m sure that will work out too!

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