The following information has been collated in response to OC02069 – OIA request -
Academic Dishonesty.

This information is based on external assessment in secondary schools relating to the
National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

The data covers the five-year period 2020 to 2024.  Note: As the 2025 academic year is
currently underway, no full-year data is available.

For guidance on the processes NZQA follows when dealing with alleged breaches, please
refer to NZQA Assessment Rules for Schools, TEOs assessing against Achievement
Standards and NCEA Co-requisite Standards, and Candidates 2025 – Section 5 Process for
Candidate Breaches of External Assessment
Annual number of reported cases of alleged breaches
Reported cases of alleged breaches
Description
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
Paper-based exam
142
345
212
177
268
Digitally completed
734
155
98
83
64
assessment

Total candidate
876*
500
310
260
332
investigations
*Formally investigated.
Category of alleged breach
Category
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
Following instructions
299
263
181
192
226
Inappropriate or Dishonest
250
145
95
14
28
practice
Influencing/ assisting /
57
37
16
20
67
hindering
Authenticity / Impersonation
270
55
18
34
11
Outcome of breach investigations
Description
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
Breach substantiated
739
449 +
268
191
279
Results released - no breach
137
49
42
69
53
found
Result withheld
418
66
39
35
39
Result released – warning
321
385
271
156
240
issued
+2 not attributed to any candidate due to lack of evidence
Measures in place to detect breaches
Current measures in place for identifying alleged breaches are by reports from:
1.  the Principal's Nominee who sends the report after a teacher, student, supervisor or
parent raises a concern;
2.  the Examination Centre Manager;
3.  markers who detect:
a.  a change in tone or handwriting within and/or between questions,

b.  work has complexity beyond the level expected
c.  content that matches known exemplars, images, compositions etc;
4.  digital detection tools can identify the fol owing behaviours, which increase the
risk of breaches:
a.  multiple access attempts
b.  text dumps
c.  concerning language
d.  if a student has exited the platform.
How an alleged breach is
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
notified
Schools (Principal’s
349
8
23
-
-
Nominee)
Examination Centre Manager
267
445
254
196
314
Markers
204
40
19
29
15
Data (digital detection tools)
56
7
5
-
-
Assessment or reviews conducted on the effectiveness of these measures in
reducing instances of academic dishonesty
NZQA’s role is to investigate alleged breaches that have been formally notified to us.
While we continue to refine and improve our processes to identify and investigate potential
breaches, no formal evaluation has been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of these
measures during the requested period.

Document Outline