Discuss the problem of plagiarism in today’s universities (By Subodh Bar Singh Tha

pa)
In today’s education era, plagiarism is the global issue where every university is
facing hefty problems. It is derived from Latin word ‘plundering’ which means kidna
pping or stealing. Stealing the intangible items such as words, thoughts, illust
rations or ideas is plagiarism (Girard 2004). People have got different view abo
ut the plagiarism. Neville (2010) mentioned plagiarism is an academic term which
refers to deliberate decision not to give credit on the work of others in assig
nments. Easterby-Smith et al. (2008:50) cited in Saunders et al. (2008) defines “P
lagiarism is presenting the work and ideas of other people and passing them off
as your own, without acknowledging the original source of the idea used.” It is si
mply submitting or passing off someone else works, ideas, expressions and inform
ation as if it is your own, without giving the proper acknowledgement. The most
common types of plagiarism mentioned by Girard (2004) are as follows:
Passing someone else’s work as if it is your own
Copying information from unreliable source
Using incorrect paraphrasing
Improper references
Copying from your own material
Plagiarism done by the students of schools, colleges and universities are the se
rious problems. However, the numbers of students in the plagiarised lists¬¬¬ from the
universities are more. According to the survey by Mclennan (2003), one third of
essays submitted to German Universities were plagiarised via internet. The reaso
n for the universities’ students being plagiarised is lack of time, confidence and
pressure, submitting same research work for multiple purpose, improper referenc
e and citation, buying the dissertation/assignments online and carelessness. Pla
giarism can happen accidently or by intentionally. No matter how the plagiarism
occurs it is against the law and not acceptable by any universities. Every unive
rsity has got reputations in their academic field and their motto is to provide
the quality education to their students on the foundation of generating new idea
s and the analysis of old ideas or research by giving the new knowledge (Cronin
2003). It is against the reputation of university if the students submit the mat
erial that is plagiarised which is not acceptable and the university has to pena
lize those students. On the other hand the basic goal of the education is built
up the students with both creating and analysing ideas and to produce their own
thoughts. Plagiarism is nothing but just the repetition of old ideas without ad
dition of new ideas and this does not match the goal of the educational institut
e. Universities used different anti-plagiarism software which detect whether the
work is original or not. Because of the plagiarised work the university has to
penalize the students that results the fail or resubmit the work again.
Nevertheless, submitting the dissertation or the research is the most essential
phase in the universities. On the other hand the ideas or the words we use must
be our own original and cited and referenced correctly. It is necessary for all
students to submit their own work to protect themselves from plagiarism. Hence,
plagiarism can cause a massive violation in universities which can result the se
rious consequences.
References:
Cronin, S. N. (2003). The Problem of Plagiarism. 22 (6) pp. 253-254
Girard, N. J. (2004). Plagiarism: An ethical problem in the writing world, AORN
Journal. Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSL/is_1_80/ai_n6
113175/#comments [Accessed on 14 March 2011]
Mclennan, L. (2003). Briefing: Plagiarism at universities. THE SUNDAY TIMES, 7 J
anuary, 2003. Available at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/s
pecials/article809537.ece [Accessed 14 March 2011].
Neville, C. (2010). The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. 2
nd edn. pp. 28-29. Maidenhead: Open University press. ISBN: 9780335241033, 03352
41034
 Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2008). Research Method for business s
tudents: Plagiarism, 5th edn. pp. 97 Pearson Education ISBN: 9780273716860, 0273
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