Disagree. I went to university within the last five years - cheating was rampant but tended to produce students who seriously struggled to keep up with coursewo

Disagree. I went to university within the last five years - cheating was rampant but tended to produce students who seriously struggled to keep up with coursework in their third and fourth year. I did not cheat and was typically one of the top performers in my courses. However we may be operating under different assumptions; there was no assumption of grade curving (it happened a few times when an exam was a little over juiced, but it pulled people into a passing grade instead of pushing people into a failing one). On reflection it sounds like you are anticipating a curve designed to flunk a certain portion of students. I'm not sure if one or the other is the 'default' experience these days.