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Have you been caught cheating on the baccalaureate or another state exam and you don’t know what will happen to you?
What is Fraud?
Fraud consists of any communication between candidates or consultation of prohibited documents such as a manual, a “cheat sheet” or a mobile phone. A second, more serious type of fraud is impersonation, which involves having someone else replace you during the test. With the confinement linked to COVID-19, exams were sometimes held remotely, which increased cheating . This last type of fraud leads to criminal prosecution.
What happens to my file?
Your results will be suspended for the judgment of the disciplinary section. This jury, made up of at least one teacher-researcher, meets within the university in which you cheated or to which the examination center in which you took your tests is attached. In the case of the baccalaureate, the results must be returned before November 15. On the other hand, there is no mandatory date for the other events.
What am I risking ?
Sanctions can only be moral with a reprimand or a warning without real consequences. On the other hand, you can find yourself expelled from the establishment in which you took the exam or from all educational establishments, for a period of 2 years, suspended for up to 5 years, or even permanently. In the event of identity theft, criminal proceedings can lead to 3 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €9,000.
What are the remedies?
You can appeal the decision of the disciplinary sanction to the National Council for Higher Education and Research (CNESER), within 15 days concerning the baccalaureate and 2 months concerning the other university examinations. Disciplinary sanction decisions being enforceable, you must send a request to the CNESER to suspend them and continue your studies pending the judgment. If the CNESER rejects your appeal, your last resort is to appeal to the Council of State.
NB
One of the reactions to this phenomenon has been to set up cell phone detectors. These mobile phones are indeed used by students to access the internet or to exchange with outsiders during tests.
Each year, numerous fraud attempts are recorded in France among the 650,000 applicants. Fraud in a baccalaureate examination is sanctioned by a ban on taking any examination for 5 years (see above).
“It’s an experimental device. It is not a jammer,” the Ministry of Education announced. Wave jammers are indeed prohibited in France, except in theaters and prisons. On the other hand, professional devices allowing the detection of waves emitted by mobile phones within a radius of 10 to 20 meters are authorized. The system does not make it possible to listen to information but to locate a mobile in operation.
We do not yet know how they work, or which establishments will be equipped with them.
These detectors are added to other measures such as a code of ethics to be signed, or a disciplinary committee specific to each academy.
DAMY law firm , Nice, I cheated on my exams, what does the law say? 2022 Update
