Politics, Today

A cheating scandal and a lost lawsuit: the battle against proctoring

26 October 202115 November 2021By Babette Stolk
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A cheating scandal and a lost lawsuit: the battle against proctoring

To proctor or not to proctor? That is the biggest question the University of Amsterdam has to face. After a failed lawsuit against the UvA’s decision to use the Proctorio software, this year’s Central Student Council (CSR) looks at the issue of proctoring once again. 

Last year the CSR lost the lawsuit against the UvA. This means that our university can still use the proctoring software and continues to do so. Currently, only the business and economics faculty is employing this software, but the CSR hopes to find alternatives. The council is not against monitoring exams, but finds the proctoring software an invasion of privacy,  psychology student and council member Joselyn Moran tells us.

The proctoring software caused another stir due to the cheating scandal at the psychology department. Two students went to the director of psychology and said that many people were still cheating, even though proctoring was used. As a response, the department tightened its rules and students who were caught cheating got suspended, says Moran when I ask her about the scandal.

The CSR opts for Zoom as an alternative to proctoring, as it does not record and store its data. After the lawsuit, chairman of the UvA Geert ten Dam stated that “if there was a good alternative, I would have already found it”, thus dismissing the option of Zoom. The CSR is continuing its battle against the software, however, with a failed lawsuit, chances of eliminating it altogether will be slim.