Confirmed: Three cases of cheating during June registration assessment
The pharmacy regulator has confirmed to C+D that it has upheld two of the five allegations of cheating made during this June’s registration assessment, while a third was admitted by a candidate.
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) found that there were three cases of cheating during this year’s June registration assessment, C+D can reveal.
Last month C+D reported that five allegations of cheating had been raised over the exam.
At the time, the regulator stressed that none of the five allegations of misconduct had “arisen as a result of unclear communication with candidates”, such as “using a calculator in the wrong paper”.
Yesterday (December 6), the GPhC told C+D that two of the allegations had been overturned.
Two allegations “went to a hearing”
Of the remaining three claims, one was “accepted” and two were “upheld”.
A spokesperson for the GPhC explained that “accepted in this context means that the candidate accepted the allegation and it was not necessary to proceed to a principal hearing”.
The other two allegations were not accepted by the accused students, so proceeded “all the way to a hearing panel”, they said.
The panel “upheld” the allegations, the spokesperson added.
Fails recorded
Last month, a spokesperson for the GPhC told C+D that “where misconduct is found to have taken place, a candidate’s results are withheld and a fail is recorded”.
They clarified that allegations of misconduct can include “but [are] not limited to allegations of cheating” and that allegation numbers fluctuates for “each sitting”.
Yesterday, the regulator confirmed that it also upheld two misconduct cases regarding the 2022 summer assessment, after receiving two allegations.
However, no allegations were made regarding the 2022 autumn assessment and no data is yet available for this year’s November assessment.
Exam chaos
This year’s three confirmed cases of cheating come after assessment chaos led candidates to stage a historic protest outside the GPhC’s Canary Wharf offices in July 2022.
Trainees issued a list of four demands to the GPhC after some reported “loud, distracting noises” in the exam halls, exam halls that reportedly allowed easy cheating and incompetent invigilators, among other complaints.
Read more: IT issues, cheating and uninformed invigilators: pharmacist trainees detail GPhC exam chaos
This June, GPhC director of education and standards Mark Voce said that the regulator had visited all the “non-permanent” exam centres “to make sure they are up-to-scratch” and stressed that all preparations were “on track” for the summer exam.
