Outsiders take exam for Saudi university students

Riyadh: The dean of the Al-Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University announced that the university had detected a number of irregularities and violations committed by students during the final exams of this current semester, which commenced last week.

Some of the violations recorded included students seeking the help of other people to take exams for them. This was detected when university authorities demanded the suspects furnish their national IDs prior to the tests.

Punishments were given to more than 180 students, according to a post by the dean on his Twitter account, and included the dismissal of three students who convinced others to write the exams for them.

There were also instances of cheating by using mobile telephones inside examination hall, creating disorder, insulting supervisors, photocopying question papers and using earphones. Students enrolled in "distance learning" at the university, of which there some 69,000, recently begun their exams at 219 examination halls across the Kingdom, starting last week.

Beginning this year, the university halted registrations for the department of distance learning, and decreased the number of specialization texts to gradually end the program which has come under criticism for its outputs by several other Saudi universities.