KUWAIT: At a time when the Law College of Kuwait University has been cracking down on students’ cheating attempts during exams and has already expelled a number of them, the court of appeal ruled that finding some ‘cheating tools’ with students sitting for exams was not to be considered actual cheating, but only ‘attempted cheating’, upon which students should not be expelled.
The court thus annulled a ruling by the first instance court, rejected the case, annulled KU’s decisions on expelling the students, ordered allowing them to resume their courses and to sit for the same exams once more. Notably, the case was filed by a student who had been caught using a micro-earpiece and a magnetic antenna to pull it out of the ear during an exam session. He was accused of cheating and was banned from registering or studying any courses in this academic year.
The court argued that possessing the ‘tools’ did not necessarily mean a student had actually used them for cheating, which was not proved by solid evidence, and thus the university’s decision was cancelled by the court.
In a similar case, the administrative appeal court also annulled KU’s decision on expelling a female student for cheating, as she had been caught with some ‘unreadable’ words written on her arm during an exam session. The court argued that it was not proven that the student had actually used those writings on her arm for cheating, and accordingly, KU’s decision was considered invalid and was annulled. —Al-Jarida