Plagiarism : student perspectives

Abstract

Abstract: Context. Universities are often required to lay the ethical foundation of student behaviour and none is more prevalent than the issue of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity although it is not specific to the academic community alone. The aim of this paper is to assess students’ understanding of plagiarism and plagiarism policies, the extent to which they engage in plagiarism practices, and their perceptions on the adequacy of training workshops on writing practices for undergraduate and post-graduate students at a metropolitan university in South Africa. Problem and results. Contradictory evidence was found about the students’ understanding of plagiarism. The prevalence of plagiarism was perceived as low amongst students. The students seemed to understand plagiarism policies as the majority indicated awareness of departmental penalties for student plagiarism and perceived these penalties to be fair. Additionally, the results revealed that different faculty departments placed equal emphasis on plagiarism and that the students perceived the university and the department’s workshops on academic writing and plagiarism to be adequate. Solution. This study highlights that South African universities mirror the global trend of increasing student plagiarism practices and that efforts to improve academic integrity should adopt global best practices while taking into account local characteristics