Gemini, ChatGPT feature in DU exam cheating as 64 students punished

Dhaka University has taken action against 64 students, its institutes and affiliated institutions for adopting unfair means in examinations and committing other offences.

Their respective examinations have been cancelled, while they have been barred from appearing in between one and three subsequent examinations.

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The decisions were taken at a meeting of the university’s Syndicate on August 31, chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof ABM Obaidul Islam, based on recommendations from the Discipline Council.

Among those punished are two student leaders of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism – Karib Chowdhury, a member of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal’s Muktijoddha Ziaur Rahman Hall unit, and Md Ferdaus, an executive member of the Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall union.

According to university documents, Karib’s second-year, fourth-semester examination was cancelled and he was barred from appearing in the next two examinations.

On June 11, during an exam in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Karib had used a mobile phone, the documents said.

A later examination of his phone showed that Google’s AI service Gemini had been used to seek an answer to the exam’s first question.

His answer script was seized at 10:17am, after the examination had begun. By then, he had already written part of the answer to the question in his script.

The university documents said two lines in his answer script matched exactly with an answer generated by Gemini.

The answer script and other relevant evidence were subsequently seized and sent to the Office of the Controller of Examinations.

Following the Discipline Council’s recommendation, DU Syndicate decided to cancel the examination and bar Karib from appearing in the next two examinations.

Ferdaus, who is from the same department and academic batch, was elected an executive member of Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall.

Several sources said he contested the Ducsu and hall union elections with the support of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir. Ferdaus, however, denied having any affiliation with Shibir.

According to university sources, Ferdaus left the examination hall around 11am during a retake examination for Course No 107 of the second semester, saying he needed to use the washroom.

He then allegedly went to a departmental corridor, obtained a smartphone from a senior student and tried to search for answers to examination questions using ChatGPT.

Teachers on duty caught him at the time, university sources said.

An examination of the seized phone’s search history later showed that questions appearing in the exam had been searched for, according to university documents.

The teacher on duty subsequently reported his answer script and sent it to the Office of the Controller of Examinations, citing evidence of malpractice.

According to the DU Syndicate decision, Ferdaus was punished under the “examination + 1” provision. His examination was cancelled and he was barred from appearing in the next examination.

An order signed by Acting Controller of Examinations Dr Himadri Shekhar Chakraborty on September 7 said the 64 students were punished based on decisions taken at the Discipline Council meeting on August 20.

The students are from different departments, institutes and affiliated institutions of the university. Seven are from the Arabic Department, the highest number from any single department.
Three students each from the Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, the Organization Strategy and Leadership programme, the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, and the Department of Law were punished.
Two students each from the departments of Geography and Environment, English and Philosophy were also punished.
One student each from Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Pharmacy, Sanskrit, Islamic Studies, Social Welfare, Statistics, History, Basic BSc in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing was also punished.

The Syndicate decision also allows the students to get back their seized mobile phones after completing their respective terms of punishment.