At a glance headlines: November 21, 2013

More than 92 per cent of educators believe that some of their students plagiarise according to a snapshot survey. The questionnaire by resource website PlagiarismAdvice.org found that a while 40 per cent believe that plagiarism is restricted to a small minority, a third fear it is an increasing problem. More than half of the respondents said they had encountered whole paragraphs which had been plagiarised, while 5.5 per cent said they had seen whole essays or pieces of coursework copied.

The findings come despite 92 per cent of the respondents saying that students do receive guidance about plagiarism and referencing, most commonly via study skills sessions. Meanwhile, the penalties for plagiarism ranged from detentions, decreased marks and repeating assignments to nothing at all. About half of the respondents said their institution used plagiarism detection software. One teacher told the study: “Plagiarism seems to be an increasing problem where students are not prepared to put time into research, and if they leave their work to the last minute.”