Japan universities rocked by cheating scandal

But it's not quite what you would expect. It's not a case of students at the universities cheating on exams or term papers. Instead it's high-tech cheating at the institutions' entrance exams. The test taker allegedly took photos of test questions, posted them to a 'help' site run by Yahoo Japan, got answers and used them to complete the test. All under the supposedly watchful eye of invigilation.

I would argue, though, that the universities involved (e.g., Kyoto University) have no one but themselves to blame. They run their own exams in order to make lots of money because they accept applications from far more people than they could possibly admit as students. Lower-ranked universities scramble to get enough students to enroll while these elite universities (both public and private) profit from testing huge numbers and turning most of them away. And then they are too cheap to provide proper invigilation.


Here is a link to a Japan Times article, with excerpt following the link.



http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110306b1.html


excerpt of Japan Times (Kyodo News) article:


Sunday, March 6, 2011


Alleged cheat handed to prosecutors


KYOTO (Kyodo) Police handed a 19-year-old preparatory school student over to prosecutors Saturday for allegedly "disrupting" a university entrance exam last week by using a cell phone to solicit answers online during the test.


The Sendai prep school student, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, is suspected of cheating by posting questions from Kyoto University's entrance exam on an online help site and using the answers that were provided.


According to the Kyoto Prefectural Police, the student said he entered text from the exam questions into his mobile phone with his left hand during the math and English tests for Kyoto University on Feb. 25 and 26.


The police believe he then wrote down the responses posted by other Internet users on Yahoo Japan's Chiebukuro (Pearls of Wisdom) question-and-answer service with his right hand, they said.


The student also admitted cheating in a similar way on the exams for Waseda, Doshisha and Rikkyo universities earlier the same month, they said.

University of Kyoto starts halal food for Muslim students

University of Kyoto (Kyodai), Japan's number two institution, has started to accomodate Muslim students. Perhaps some Japanese students will try eating halal as well?

 
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091008f2.html

Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009

Kyoto University to serve halal food
Kyodo News

Kyoto University will start providing food permissible under Islamic law at the school's cafeteria to meet the needs of the increasing number of Muslim students on campus.

The cafeteria will introduce a halal food corner from Tuesday, avoiding pork and seasonings of pork origin, which Muslims are banned from eating. The new menus include chicken and croquettes made of broad beans, it said.

More than 1,000 Muslims live in the city of Kyoto, and many are Kyoto University students and their families.

The rare introduction is aimed at supporting such Muslim students, whose population is expected to rise under the university's plans to accept more foreign students.

While the co-op said it had problems in arranging a cooking environment to avoid mixing pork and related seasonings with halal food, it solved the issue by preparing the food at different hours.

THES - QS University Rankings for 2008

The rankings for this year have been published and the entire rankings and a lot of useful information about the institutions that made the list can easily be accessed starting at the Rankings homepage:

http://www.topuniversities.com/

Complete rankings:

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/fullrankings/

Top 100:

http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/

Universities in Japan that made the global top 100 rankings:

19 University of TOKYO Japan
25 KYOTO University Japan
44 OSAKA University Japan
61 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan

Top technology institutions:

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/subject_rankings/technology/

Technology institutions in Japan that made the global technology top 100:

9 University of TOKYO Japan 67.4
21 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan 57.0
22 KYOTO University Japan 56.8
49 OSAKA University Japan 42.3
98 TOHOKU University Japan 32.7

Summary of the results from a Japan higher education perspective.

Todai slipped back a bit. Perhaps Kyodai's rankings are too low considering its Nobel winners this year. Tokyo Institue of Technology continues to be a fast riser.