March 23, 2005
University allegedly 'cracks down' on plagiarism
In one department alone - the veterinary faculty - 73 of the 628 students were investigated for allegedly copying or fabricating material... Many of the students were made to resubmit their work, although only one was ultimately failed by the faculty.
There are only two ways to crack down on plagiarism: failure and expulsion. As long as you don't make students pay, and believe me students know exactly what they can get away with - this is not 'ignorance', most this is straight out cheating - they will always play the system.
Once you start expelling students [or making them repeat the whole academic year, after paying a hefty re-registration fee] then they'll stop cheating.
The point that these articles repeatedly miss is that refusing to deal with cheating [which is effectively what this institution is doing] is most harmful to the students who actually do their work. And to the institutions themselves - a University which doesn't take plagiarism seriously isn't worthy of the name.
Posted in: Education
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