A Cambridge undergraduate has had their mark in an exam reduced to zero after pleading guilty to a charge of using their phone to cheat during an examination toilet break.

The unnamed student, who logged onto CamTools during the break to access relevant notes, was brought in front of the university’s Court of Discipline on 28th September in a private hearing after a complaint by a Junior Proctor. Five senior academics sat in judgement.

The Proctor accused the student of breaking Regulation 6 of the ‘General Regulations of Discipline’, which bars the use of “unfair means”, including unauthorised “material relevant to the examination”.

The proceedings included the University Advocate outlining the circumstances of the case and the Defendant’s representative putting forward the Defendant’s defence. Several witnesses were cross-examined during the proceedings.

The Defendant pleaded guilty to the charges, which the court accepted. As set out in the Reporter, the court emphasised the serious nature of the offence, but also considered evidence of the student’s “character, their admission of guilt and subsequent remorse, and their personal circumstances”.

These subsequent considerations, the court claimed, were partly responsible for why the punishment was not more severe, claiming that a “more severe penalty was not warranted in this case because of the lack of clear evidence of premeditation”.

In January, the court passed down a tougher sentence against a Master’s student by stripping them of their degree after they were found guilty of plagiarism.