Universities need to tell students the rules about plagiarism
Some universities are letting students down by failing to warn
them about plagiarism and its consequences until it is too
late, says the official who deals with student complaints.
The annual report of the Office of the Independent
[5] Adjudicator (OIA) shows that complaints from students about
harsh treatment by their universities over cheating have risen
sharply ∈ the past three years.
The OIA’s chief executive, Rob Behrens, says the problem of student academic misconduct appears
to be growing. “When I go round to universities, I realise they are already dealing with significant
[10] amounts of academic misconduct that doesn’t ever come to the OIA.”
According to Behrens, these complaints fall into three categories. “Students say to us either: ‘No
one told me what the rules were’, or ‘I accept I broke the rules, but the sanction is too severe’, or ‘The
university didn’t follow its own regulations and I didn’t get a fair hearing’.”
In one typical example, a student used notes from a website that publishes essays and was caught
[15] by his university. The work also included sentences identical to another student’s from a previous
year. The university decided this was a serious breach of its rules. Marks for the whole module
were reduced to zero, which meant the student’s degree classification also dropped. The student
believed his punishment was too severe, but the adjudicator ruled against the student.
However, the concept of plagiarism can vary across cultures. For example, imitation can be regarded
[20] as a form of flattery and respect. As Behrens told the inquiry, “Chinese colleagues comment ‘what
you call plagiarism we call good practice’, so you have to explain to people they can do X and they
can’t do Y. You can’t just assume it is known. This also applies to British students. We can no longer
have assumptions about what students know when they go to university”.
Behrens says universities should do more to communicate their rules, procedures and sanctions on
[25] plagiarism. And Liam Burns, president of the National Union of Students agrees, especially to avoid
“accidental cheating”, such as when a student has been unclear about when to cite a source. “I’d
like to see more universities use the plagiarism software for student training as well as detection. If
students can see what sets off the ‘plagiarism alarm’, that helps”.
Behrens urges continuing investment ∈ both detection and prevention. “Good students and
universities have common cause here”, he says.
theguardian.com
If cultural differences are taken into account, plagiarism might be seen from another perspective.
The Chinese, for instance, regard imitation as a sign of:
