Technology favours the cheats at University

As the academic year draws to a close, students who have resorted to plagiarism in their coursework can feel safe in the knowledge that there is still no dedicated plagiarism-detection software in use at the University.

Three Erasmus students who recently completed a year at the University and returned to their home countries have admitted to The Sunday Times that they copied large sections of work from the internet - and they may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Anti-plagiarism software is widely used in UK universities and elsewhere in the EU, making it extremely difficult for students to copy work without referencing it correctly. Among the most popular software is Turnitin, which was developed in 1994 and operates by checking the originality of text against all text available online and in its vast database, highlighting any sentences which appear similar.

Although he did not provide figures, Pro-Rector for Academic Affairs Alfred Vella lamented that the number of plagiarism cases appearing before the Disciplinary Board have increased over recent years.

The internet gives students access to wealth of academic material at the click of a button and the absence of plagiarism-detection software means examiners have to be constantly on guard for 'seams' of writing which look out of place. Prof. Vella said examiners often have to resort to search engines such as Google to confirm their suspicions.

Punishments for plagiarism range from a grade reduction considered appropriate by the Disciplinary Board coupled with a verbal warning and instructions on how to avoid the offence, to the temporary suspension or even expulsion of the student from University.

The University plans to introduce anti-plagiarism software for university-wide use in October, as well as new regulations governing discipline in connection with plagiarism to simplify and streamline the process. However, this will be too late to detect any students who resorted to cheating in the last academic year.

Although some offenders appear to be genuinely ignorant of how to construct their writings properly to avoid plagiarism, probably the majority of offenders know the implications of their actions and simply do it because it's lighter work and they don't feel any guilt, according to Prof. Vella.

"Not feeling guilty about plagiarism is the real tragedy: perhaps at University we should spend more time inculcating the value of moral rectitude and ethical behaviour, even if this is at the cost of spending less time on the more exotic 'examinable' material," he said.