The study, carried out by TT news agency in Gothenburg, shows that over 500 students were caught last year in Sweden, and the government is taking a harder stance against it, planning to ban cheating students from university programmes altogether.

“This is far too many,” said Peter Honeth of the ministry of education to the agency.

Cheating increased in Sweden’s biggest universities by 60 percent between 2009 and 2010, yet remained at the same level in 2011. Last year, 548 students were caught, only seven more than in 2010, according to TT.

According to current rules, a student caught cheating can be banned for a total of six months at the maximum, however the large numbers have forced authorities to get tougher in their grapple with devious students.

“Perhaps we can close doors on those who cheat for a longer time or maybe even completely,” Honeth told TT.

The government, meanwhile, wants to enforce the need for every university to use search engines for finding plagiarism, which is the most common form of cheating.

And the opposition parties are not entirely against the government’s ideas.

“It must be clear that there will be consequences if you break the rules” said Ibrahim Baylan, education spokesperson for the Social Democrats to TT.