Scandal: An Education Misfortune

Getting into university has always been hard, but is it worth buying your way in?

There’s usually a chain of command when it comes to going and getting into university, but it seems in America that wasn’t the case.

It has been reported that many of the richest people are bribing college admin officials to get their children into the school of their choice.

This story brought about a very curious question as a person from the UK reading this; has a bribing scandal or cheating ever happened in any school in the UK or London?

Maybe but it is unsure if it ever got to the extent that it has in the US. It is reported that Rudy Meredith an ex Yale women’s football coach among other admin officials were behind falsifying students admissions records to have them as recruits when they don’t play the sport.

This was agreed upon with the wealthy parents and many of the admin officials to have their children enrolled in the university for a hefty cost.

Among those accused is 90’s actress Lori Loughlin, academy award nominee Felicity Huffman and CEO’s of different big companies.

As of now it has been reported that both ladies have been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and have been released on bond.

Although both ladies were charged with the same crime the actions they did, in regard to their children, were different.

Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli paid $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into USC and Felicity Hoffman paid $15,000 to get her daughter onto the entrance cheating scam.

They have both retained legal council and are expected to appear back in court on April 3.

The previous question still stands, has this ever happened in the UK? And it has been reported that it has but with cheating during GCSE and A level exams.

Penalties have been issued to both students and staff. In 2017 2,715 penalties were issued to students for malpractice. The number of penalties in 2016 were only 2,180.These numbers were put together by the Ofqual board.

Students have also been penalised for bringing unauthorised items in exam rooms such as mobile phones.

The rise with continual cheating began with tougher English and Maths being taught in schools. Ofqual reported that among the staff assisting in cheating and disobeying correct regulation, 890 penalties were issued in 2017 compared to the 360 in 2016.

Although both stories might seem slightly different given that those in the UK were not facing possible jail time, it does have similarities with wanting to take the easy way out rather than working hard. It also shows the ill-fated actions of the adults involved.

In regard to the actions in America, it may be a worse fate given that it was both cheating and bribery that took place.

This also shows students and adults that did things the right way got the short end of the deal by not being accepted into university or passing their exams.

Photo by Taiana Martinez on Unsplash