Let's be clear from the first line:
What happens in many of our universities is not «student violations», but a collapse of the system.
It is not «lack of commitment», but silent complicity.
And it's not a crisis of individual morals, but a scandal of institutional standards.
Academic dishonesty is no longer an incidental event, nor a marginal behavior that can be contained with a committee or a circular. Today's cheating is a lived reality, practiced fearlessly, managed silently, and protected under administrative umbrellas with smooth labels: «flexibility», «circumstances», «accommodation». Words are used not to save the student, but to justify incapacity, legitimize failure, and empty education of its meaning.
More dangerous than cheating is that some universities themselves are no longer provoked by the idea.
The question is no longer: How do we teach?
But: How do we pass everyone through?
How do we reduce complaints?
How do we pass everyone with the least administrative headache?
Thus, the university degree has been turned into a mere elegant cover, empty of content.
A social decoration, not a certificate of competence.
A stamped paper, not a result of learning.
Education is no longer a pathway to building the mind, but a collective trick to cross requirements.
And the student?
No, not a victim.
Cheating is a decision.
A conscious, calculated, and repeated decision.
A significant portion of students no longer see studying as valuable, but as a barrier to circumvent. Cheating is no longer an act conducted sneakily, but a behavior displayed confidently because the message received by the student is clear: no one is serious about accountability.
When the trickster is rewarded, the committed person is burdened, and the hard-working and the lazy end up with the same results, don’t be surprised when cheating turns into a culture. Don't be surprised when diligence becomes «stupidity», integrity becomes «naïveté», and the system becomes «a game».
But the real disaster is not just here.
The catastrophe is in the academic body itself.
Yes, there are honorable professors who work with conscience, resisting cheating despite the pressure, defamation, and complaints. But they operate within a system that has lost its compass. No unified evaluation policy, no clear standards, no genuine red lines. Each professor is an island, each room a law, each mood a policy.
On one side of the scene, an oppressive professor who confuses dignity with harshness, pushing students to cheat out of fear, not laziness.
And on the other side – and this is the most dangerous – a lenient professor, who decided to be liked rather than responsible, thus lightening the content, watering down the evaluations, and turning a blind eye to cheating, perhaps even defending it. This is not «kindness»; this is a systematic destruction of education.
In between, the balanced professor is crushed.
The one who wants real education.
The one who rejects negligence without resorting to tyranny.
This professor is accused, pressured, and asked to «lighten up» so as not to disturb anyone.
In such a system, integrity becomes a burden, not a value.
And the exams?
They are a farce.
A mere formal supervision, or blatant leniency.
A single message gets to the student: The laws are not laws, but the mood of individuals. And when integrity differs from room to room, talking about academic justice becomes hypocritical.
And the result?
Graduates equal in certificates, horribly divergent in competence.
A job market that pays the price for a failure it didn’t create.
Some universities lose their respect, not because they are strict, but because they are contradictory, hesitant, and afraid to take a stand.
Confronting cheating is not done with moral speeches or public relations statements.
It is done by admitting that leniency is an educational betrayal.
That protecting a lenient professor is a silent crime.
And that those who sell grades are no less dangerous than those who steal them.
And here, the discourse must be direct, harsh if necessary, to the decision-makers in universities:
Either clear standards that are applied to everyone, or stop pretending to educate.
Either protect the serious and hold the lenient accountable, or admit that you are running diploma mills, not universities.
The gray area is no longer an option. Silence is no longer neutrality. And hesitation is no longer acceptable.
Finally, a word to the students - without sugarcoating:
Cheating is not cleverness.
It is not intelligence.
It is not «a temporary solution».
Cheating is a declaration of bankruptcy.
An admission of incapacity.
An early signature on a worthless certificate.
Whoever cheats today will be exposed tomorrow.
Not because someone will track them down, but because life does not recognize paper, but competence.
A certificate unsupported by knowledge will collapse at the first real test.
If you want real education, demand it.
And if you want a shortcut, admit courageously:
You do not want a university …
But a comfortable illusion.
