According to the official that has been dealing with student
complains in Britain: “Some universities are letting students down by failing
to warn them about plagiarism and its consequences until it is too late”. The
annual report by the OIA (Office of the Independent Adjudicator) shows that for
the past three years complaints about plagiarism and its consequences have
risen enormously. Behrens says “I'd like to see more universities use the
plagiarism software for student training as well as detection”, which seems the
best way to avoid unintentional plagiarism. According to Behrens, there are
three sorts of complaints: "Students say to us either: 'No one told me
what the rules were', or 'I accept I broke the rules but the sanction is too
severe,' or 'The university didn't follow its own regulations and I didn't get
a fair hearing.'"
I think that universities should be more good-hearted when
it comes to plagiarism, at least the first time it happens. Everyone makes
mistakes and that includes students. It is not difficult to forget to cite a
source, especially when working on a bigger project. It is very harsh to kick a
student out of school just for forgetting to add a link to three of the lines
he put on paper. Secondly, universities should have a special program for
plagiarism so students will learn in, let’s say, three hours how it works and how
to beat it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/11/universities-students-rules-plagiarism-adjudicator
I think your summary of what the article is about is exceptionally well done! However, I do not agree with you saying that universities should be more lenient when it comes to plagiarism. I have a friend who committed plagiarism at university before he had had the course that taught him how to properly quote and such and he got away with a warning. However, if he does it again he will be expelled. I think severe measures like that are most efficient when it comes to keeping people from committing plagiarism.
ReplyDelete