Academic Corruption 101

I am always proud to call myself a mentor.

I wanted to share and give my students the best services that I could offer. In everything you do, give it your best shot. Make your country proud as I always tell them. That is my mantra. I don’t want to shortchange my students by becoming a mediocre teacher. I want to give them the best.

In my mind, mediocre students are there because mediocre teachers exist.

Three days ago, I received a text from one of our former librarians asking me if I could help some students from a different university with regards to their thesis writing. I replied that if it’s within my specialization, I would be glad to extend my assistance to them.

I was not really ready to hear what they have to say when they told me their story.

They were a group of students who were supposed to graduate this semester. I learned that their thesis adviser filed for a leave and was supposed to go to U.S. The students were asked to comply with the requirements on or before the last week of June. Failure to comply means incurring a failing grade of 5.

I may belong to a different university but common sense tells me that any professor who files for a leave, the college or office she belongs to must provide someone to take charge of the responsibilities left behind by one of their faculty members. These responsibilities may include giving of removal exams or completion of INC (incomplete grades).

The students are already in the writing stage of their thesis so supposedly there’s no problem with the deadline. But here’s the catch. Since she’s leaving this first week of July, they were told by their adviser that each of them would just have to pay her 2, 500 pesos. There would be no defense and they can all have their passing grade. When asked what’s that amount for. She said it’s for her intellectual property rights.

Her intellectual property rights according to her include checking her student’s research papers, whether the statistical tools they’ve used is apt for their study, whether Mr. Subject agrees with Ms. Verb, and see if there are any corrections with the grammar. The professor said that as long as the data is there, she would be the statistician for their research as well as the proof reader, correct everything from grammar to statistical tools, revisions (with no defense, what’s there to revise anyway?)and everything. She’s a one-man team. All they have to do is to pay, pass their paper and everything is okay. No defense. No whatsoever.

Everybody happy.

If all this is true then I just don’t know what is left for the student to do. Her actions would have been “mistaken” as an act of a good Samaritan only that there’s money involved. For some students, it would be easy to just hand the needed amount and voila! Writing an undergraduate thesis is as easy as 1-2-3. Thing is, not everybody is as rich as Lucio Tan or Bill Gates. And even so, it's easy to just pay and make your life easier but in the end, you don't learn anything from it. It defeats the purpose of learning.

The professor also charged a different fee for the students to pay for her "intellectual property rights". She gathered materials for her class discussions and send it to the email add of her students. There was no bibliography attached or whatsoever.

Sometimes, I don’t know whether I’ll be mad or be amused with these things that take place in some of the academes in the country. I used to hear stories like these and I’ve never quite believed them. I know that it happens but to encounter one in real life is dishearteniing.

As mentors, teachers should be sources of inspiration and encouragement, not shame nor remorse.

I used to tell my students that teaching is such a noble profession but the government treats educators like second class citizens in this country. I always hear people telling me that I am so blessed because I teach at U.P. That I don't teach as an ordinary public school teacher.

But in the first place, what is wrong with being a public school teacher?

In seminars and teacher trainings that I've conducted, I've often heard public school teachers refer to themselves as "just teachers".

If they can't regard themselves with respect and dignity as educators, then how could other people see them as such?

They have to believe that regardless of the institution they teach for, whether it is the premier university in the country or an unknown barrio school somewhere in the rural area, thing is, you're an educator and as such you should be proud.

But what makes this particular scenario more ironic is the fact that the professor involved here is not an ordinary public school teacher (if there is such a thing called as ordinary teacher at all). She belongs to an institution of higher learning. She is well paid and I know the school where she graduates from is one of the best in the country, too.

Will it be wrong for me to think that all levels of educational system in this country is not safe from academic corruption?

I dont think there's a reason enough for an educator to take advantage of her student's vulnerability. If the government is corrupt, is it justifiable to just sit there and be swallowed by the system?

We educators are agents of change.

Other people may just shrug it off. But I will always find it scandalous for my students to do such a thing in my class. Of course, not everybody is as smart as our national hero Jose Rizal who earns a deluge of sobresaliente in his report card. But we can try our best, can’t we?

I just hope and pray that no student of mine cheats himself or herself the chance of gaining new knowledge and experience by letting other people do the work that they ought to do for themselves. I have learned and mastered the art of knowing to give credit where credit is due. But I have also learned how to deal with violators.

You call it tough love.

I will be there for them as long as they don't give up on themselves. You love them enough to teach them that sometimes the best things in life are learned the hard way. Even if it means they have to write their own research papers over and over again until they learn to do it like a pro.

It might be hard but it’s worth it.