Jeff Charis-Carlson

jcharisc@press-citizen.com

Dozens of Chinese students at the University of Iowa are being investigated for cheating in their online courses, according to a news report from Reuters.

UI officials announced last week that they were investigating possible academic misconduct involving at least 30 students enrolled in online courses. The university had been alerted to the possible cheating through ProctorU, a national proctoring service that provides identity verification for online courses.

ProctorU alerted UI that the students may have attempted to cheat by having other people take their exams in one or more courses.

The university is investigating each case individually. If a student is found to have cheated, disciplinary action could include expulsion or suspension.

In a story posted Wednesday, Reuters reports that most, if not all, of the UI students under investigation are Chinese nationals who stand accused of cheating in online versions of at least three courses.

Three of those Chinese students admitted to Reuters that they hired Chinese-run online companies to take exams for them. There are many such services that offer to help foreign students at U.S. colleges do much of the work required for their online classes — everything from writing papers to taking exams.

UI officials said they will not provide any further identifying information about the students, citing federal privacy laws.

On May 8, Reuters reports, UI sent a letter recommending expulsion to a fourth Chinese student who allegedly had other people take his midterms for him.

"We are unable to be sure that you will not cheat in the future, since your past actions call your future behavior into question,” the letter reportedly reads.

In general, if an international student is expelled, he or she has 10 business days to appeal the decision to the dean of students. That appeal is then transmitted to the provost for review, and if the student is unsatisfied, he or she can appeal the case to the board of regents for a final decision.

Once expelled, international students face possible deportation under U.S. immigration law.

UI had 4,540 international students enrolled at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, with 2,797 of those students coming from China. The university's Chinese enrollment has more than doubled in the past five years, and the bulk of those students pay full tuition.

With 1,796 enrolled students, students from China also made up the largest cohort of the 4,041 international students at Iowa State University at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year.

At the University of Northern Iowa, Chinese students account for 144 of the 616 international students at the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year. With 211 students, the largest cohort of international students at UNI comes from Saudi Arabia.

Officials with ProctorU say their company establishes specific protocols for flagging potential misconduct with each of their 800 partner institutions.

"Typical protocol includes proctors documenting the incident as it happens then submitting an incident report to the university within 24 hours," Jarrod Morgan, ProctorU's chief strategy officer, said via email. "Proctors are trained to carefully monitor students and frequently check in with them if they feel there may be an issue — helping to prevent cheating, rather than to simply catch it."

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffcharis.