After a year of online learning due to the pandemic, Greek universities are wrestling with the issue of how to prevent online cheating.

In remote learning environments, examination safeguards are difficult to enforce. There have been cases of long-term students, who had not shown up at the university campus for years, now scoring very high marks.

John Mylopoulos, a professor of environmental engineering and former rector of Thessaloniki's Aristotelio University, told AFP: "In jest, we call the degrees to be awarded this season 'corona degrees'."

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One student admits that they had taken online exams for other people.

Sofia, a 20-year-old psychology student at Aristotelio, said: "Last summer, I took two exams on behalf of two of my friends, and nobody realized."

"I logged in using their computers and personal registration codes. There was no requirement for an open camera during the exam. My two friends received a nearly perfect score without opening a book," she told AFP.

Kostas Kosmatos, an assistant professor of criminology at Thrace's Democritus University, blames the system and notes that only an open-camera examination can help restore transparency.

However, he admits that would be a complicated procedure: "It's impossible to do that with up to 500 people taking part in an exam."

Other professors have also warned that even personalized exam passwords are not a complete safeguard since there is no way to ensure that the person logging in is the actual student.