The number of students caught cheating in coursework at Kingston University has nearly tripled over the past five years.

A Freedom of Information request by the Surrey Comet revealed 627 incidents of academic misconduct were recorded by the University in 2010-11, compared to 278 in 2006-07.

Of these 397 were in coursework, compared to 135 in 2006-7, showing a steep increase since 2006-07.

President of the students’ union Chris Dingle said he thought the figures were the result of more students getting caught out, rather than more cheating.

He said: “There’s been some changes to regulations this year which mean it’s easier to catch people, so I would be inclined to say it’s that rather than more people actually cheating.

“The simplified regulations make it easier and more straightforward for both students to know what they can do and for departments to come forward and report, so I suspect it’s a matter of things being tightened up.”

The remaining offences logged in 2010-11 included 21 in exams and a further 209 where the nature of offence was not recorded.

Mr Dingle said both the university and the student union, which runs a plagiarism awareness week, were doing all they could to stop people cheating or plagiarising in their work.

He said: “Plagiarism is one of those things that will be prevalent in every university to an extent, to some level there will be a level or undercurrent of it.

“Every student has an induction on their course which will include plagiarism.

“There’s not much more the university can do in that respect.”

Under the university’s academic regulations penalties include a zero mark for the module, marking penalties, warning letters, suspension and expulsion.

The university did not provide a full breakdown of all penalties applied for the 627 incidents logged in 2010-11 but supplied an outline of information for 355 punishments.

It showed the vast majority of offenders, 87 per cent in 2010-11, received a zero mark for the module with the opportunity to retake it.

In 2010-11, just 10 out of 355 were expelled for cheating and two suspended and no warning letters were distributed.