Honest bunch: Cheating numbers plummet at Northumbria

“If you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself” – a mantra drilled into us throughout school and uni.

And still every year there are a number of students who take the risk to pass those dreaded exams.

But the number of students caught cheating during the last five years aren’t as high as you might think.

Most are choosing to genuinely study.

From 2009 to 2014, the number of cheaters sitting exams has dropped by 95 per cent, with only five students having been found guilty in 2013/14.

And the warnings about using technology in exams seem to be paying off as no student has cheated using a mobile phone since 2010.

But the traditional method of smuggling in notes and crib sheets remains the standard method of trying to beat the system.

And apart from 2012/13, there are recorded incidents for the past five years of this method.

Dissertations are the killer.

When it comes to dissertations there’s a much higher record of catching the cheats out.

But even then the numbers have dropped, with only five students being caught this year as opposed to the 24 in 2011/12.

Of course, the figures released are only those students who have been caught.

And the staff can hold their heads high as in the past five years none has been found conspiring with a student in order to aid cheating.

And despite the temptation to get absolutely smashed the night before an exam no student has had to be removed from an examination hall due to being intoxicated – unless we’re just getting better at handling our hangovers.