The University of Melbourne is piloting the Cadmus Assessment System, software which tracks typing and detects work not typed by the person logged in, which makes it “a protected authoring environment for student assignments.”

But people are not happy, with the university’s student union circulation a petition opposing the pilot as intrusive. However, DVC Academic Richard James makes the case that something must be done to protect academic standards, “Australian universities lack a robust means of detecting contract cheating.  This is a threat to the integrity of university assessment that cannot be ignored.”

But while, Cadmus “shows promise in identifying authentic, original work,” Professor James says “there are presently no plans for its implementation across the university. The university has an ongoing working group on academic integrity, comprising staff and students, to continue to monitor all aspects of academic integrity and to try to reduce the small minority of students who cheat.”