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Academic plagiarism of Swansea University
Miranda Jiang 2005557
10/08/2020
For
Swansea University
Executive Summary
In recent years, academic plagiarism has become a hot topic all over the world, especially on university campuses, which has been regarded as an academic crime. Landau et al. (2002) point out that many reports have analyzed plagiarism by college students on the Internet, and there are some types of academic dishonesty, including cheating in exams, miscitation, and plagiarism of prior written materials. Zimenman (2012) says that some students may not correctly recognize the difference between intentional and unintentional plagiarism. This report analyses the impact of plagiarism in universities and how students at Swansea University College understand academic plagiarism. Moreover, it highlights how Swansea University helps students to avoid plagiarism and the reasons for plagiarism among students and discusses the other two universities’ understanding of plagiarism among students. This reports’ information and data on academic plagiarism are accurate and reliable. A lot of data information is not only second-hand research from different authors and different articles but also includes first-hand information. For further research, this report applies to how plagiarism can be avoided in the future. Preventing students from plagiarizing plays a vital role in their academic careers. It is suggested that all colleges should pay more attention to student plagiarism and help students avoid plagiarism in order to graduate successfully.
Contents
2.1 Academic misconduct code of practice in Swansea university. 6
2.2Academic integrity procedures in other universities in the UK. 6
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
As Ma (2008) suggests that cheating is no longer a new phenomenon on many college campuses. A lot of students have some academic misconduct in order to pass their examination smoothly. Although it is a great challenge for all university to prevent students from avoiding academic plagiarism, it is quite necessary for schools to take some methods and measures to deal with such bad behaviour, so as to help students establish a good learning atmosphere and academic quality.
1.2 Aims
Every student wants to graduate without academic misconduct, but Kennedy (2000) makes the point that there are 40% to 60% of students who have cheated on an exam at least once. In order to better understand the behaviour and reasons for academic plagiarism. This report analyzes what Students at Swansea University know about academic integrity, and understand Swansea University College’s policy on academic plagiarism. Also, this report analyzes and compares Swansea University’s systems with other two other universities to encourage academicintegrity and deter academic plagiarism. In addition, some suggestions are made to combat academic misconduct in light of coronavirus restrictions affecting examinations.
1.3 Scope
This report will focus on Swansea’s academic understanding of plagiarism and Swansea University’s policy on academic misconduct, as well as comparing it with two other schools, such as Bristol and Cardiff. All the information and data from this article are not only found on the websites of these universities but also have first-hand data, which are available and reliable. Some of the literature is quoted from Google Scholar, which means that it will only be secondary research.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Academic misconduct code of practice at Swansea University
According to Swansea University, states that academic integrity covers a shared set of principles, which include honesty, trust, diligence, fairness, and respect. All procedures and penalties had written on “Academic misconduct procedure of Swansea University,” which includes 18 sections of rules and cases (Swansea University, n.d.). Also, those are all the main characters to keep through their future jobs. In the university, all students have to follow the rules for their assessment, exams, making oral presentations, or writing assignments, and dissertations. However, when student obeys the rule and being found guilty, there are very strict retaliation would take to misconduct which is written in the 12th and 13th section on the procedures. Academic misconducts align with plagiarism, collusion, and breach of examination regulations, fabrication of data, impersonation of others or the commissioning of work for assessment, etc., although these are the most common issues (Swansea University, n.d.). In contrast, the Committee consults and takes considerations when academic misconduct has made. The Committee makes the final decision after they assess student’s acts related to any misconduct and find out the intention. Penalties could be the issue of formal reprimand to the cancellation of the candidate’s all marks to the disqualification from any future University examination (Swansea University, n.d.). Academic misconduct procedures involve all cases to meet their regulation. For the assignments, sections 2 and 3 clearly define academic misconduct in both examination and non-examination conditions. Section 3 embraces the three main types of cheating, such as plagiarism, collusion, and commissioning (Swansea University, n.d.). Essay mills are one of the commissioning examples of misconduct. Moreover, small pieces of details exist on the Code of Practice for dealing with cases of Academic Misconduct 2018/19.
2.2Academic integrity procedures in other universities in the UK
Cardiff University has Academic Misconduct Procedure, which has five sections, including introduction, consideration of the allegations/concerns, university academic integrity panel, cases that emerge, and request for review (Cardiff University, n.d.). There are no specific definitions of misconduct, only consists of coursework, examination, other academic misconduct. Coursework misconduct only emerged from exceeded similarity on Turnitin. Examination policy refers to all cheating without clear regard to the specification of misconduct. The procedure is very simple at Cardiff University compared to Swansea University. On the contrary, when the cheating circumstances assessing and indicating the process will be uncertain due to no specified misconducts.
Bristol University release yearly University Policy on Academic Integrity for students who conduct in the next academic year. The policy shows simple direction and definitions of avoiding misconduct. A policy assembled by four sections, including the definition of academic integrity, responsibilities, resources for students and staff, and academic misconduct (Bristol University, 2019). In general, the first three sections are similar to the Academic Misconduct Procedure of Cardiff University. Whereas, a section of academic misconduct defines cheating as much as the detailed view rather than Swansea University and Cardiff University. More importantly, Bristol University pays more attention to fabrication or falsification misconduct. Any attempt to present distorted data, consequences, evidence, and studiesdeemed to very serious academic misconduct (Bristol University, 2019). On the other hand, including no aspects of commissioning misconduct.
3. Methodology
This report will provide some attitudes and situations of Swansea University students on plagiarism. However, due to the spread of the epidemic, it is impossible to conduct face-to-face investigations of Swansea University students. To ensure the authenticity of the report, we used Swansea University. There are some limited data and information on the website to support the views, and the questionnaire survey is shared in some groups so that students can answer some questions, and discuss the harm of plagiarism and the bad impact on us.
According to the results of the survey, after investigating the students who have graduated from Swansea University, Swansea students have cheated. Most of the reason is that they are unable to write essays with thousands of words because of their laziness. They will delay writing because of playing. The time for the paper and the deadline is approaching; I can only find some way to cheat. Regarding the consequences of cheating, the students only took a fluke in their hearts, as the severe punishment after the cheating was discovered, regret is no longer useful. Most students believe that academic fraud is very serious and that the reason for dishonesty in writing academic papers is that there is no specific standard, and the individual’s attitude is not clear. Most of the information you get is from students to students. Moreover, if no one knows how to write some essays, they will go to a composition factory to get a service. There are also some students who think that the academic policy of Swansea University is not strict. Of course, on the other hand, people will use the grammar corrector because of the lack of proficiency in grammar. We often see some software about the grammar corrector in some web pages. For example, grammar is a good grammar correction software, which is not only used by international students but also used by many local students in the UK. This software is understandable and can really give a lot of help. In the case of being caught cheating, most students choose to be given a chance to criticize the education and are expelled back to their own country if they are found guilty again. These are some simple surveys of plagiarism. Finally, there is an of the University of Swansea university and some of the motherland, the content of the contrast about the efficiency of Swansea university’s academic integrity policy on the score, a full mark is 10, the majority of students believe that Swansea score of 7 to 10 points, simple survey, we give the reason for this is that the domestic university system is more loosely, examination management is not too strict, so the cheating case also will be more, relatively speaking, Swansea university system management is very good. It is clear that we also hope that the university can use the correct way to guide the seriousness of students’ plagiarism and help some students with lower levels so that they can graduate smoothly.
4. Discussion
The results show that even though most of the students know the consequences of plagiarism, it has not prevented them from cheating. The University of Swansea gives all its procedures and penalties on the “Academic Misconduct procedure of Swansea University.” However, though students do realize the need for academic integrity and impact that particular cheating plagiarism has on their academics, their general character and attitude towards their character are one of the factors that have led to increased cheating in Swansea. Additionally, it also found out that most of the students cheat because they think the university’s policy is not strict enough. This result is in line with the research conducted. For instance, in regards to Swansea’s academic policy, although the institution has mulled guidelines that refrain students from cheating, less attention has been paid to fabrication and falsification of content(Cardiff University.d.). This practice gives a chance for students to exercise cheating.This fact that the institution policy is not as strict encourages students to exercise cheating since there are no serious repercussions that will occur to them. These results have, therefore, have been resourceful in answering the research questions. However, the study had a number of limitations. Since the research was an online survey, there might be chances of poor distribution channels, which would lead to biased data. There is also the issue of low response rates, which limits the sample size, and last, the students may not be much focused on the survey because there are numerous distractions.
As Ma (2008) suggests, these results have serious implications regarding the academics of Swansea students and other institutions. It means that most of the students achieve in their studies while they have not gained any knowledge or skills are to be implemented in real-world issues. In the future, students have less to showcase their skills, which has built a tarnished reputation for university scholars and the institution. Additionally, the bigger picture lies in personal integrity matters and how it will affect the students’ character in the future.
5 Conclusion
The purpose of this study was better to understand the behaviour and reasons for academic plagiarism. It analyzed what the students of Swansea University know about academic integrity and what they understand regarding the university academic plagiarism report. Also, it also analyzes the distinction between Swansea University and two other universities. The study concludes that university students cheat not because they do not understand the implications of cheating but because they have because of other self-interests, just like Zimmerman (2012) findings.The study also finds out that the lenience of university policies in matters of plagiarism and cheating acts as a contributing factor in accelerating plagiarism. Additionally, there seem to be different perceptions and attitudes exhibited by the students and the staff and among universities (Cardiff University, n.d.). However, if a more common ground were achieved concerning plagiarism and good governance maintained in the institution, it would be a stepping stone to ending this norm.
6. Recommendations
The fact that plagiarism exists is no doubt; rather, what should be critical is why they do it and what can be done. As the results have indicated, poor management and features of self-interests among students are the leading factors that enhance plagiarism. According to Landau (2002), these are some of the recommendations that these universities could use.
- A proper guideline of what is acceptable should be set that clearly defines what plagiarism is
- Creation of original assignments that are less likely to be found on the Internet
- Students could be asked to present their rough drafts along with their final submissions.
- Universities should review their assessment methods and make sure students adhere to good governance.
Reference list:
Kennedy, K., Nowak, S., Raghuraman, R., Thomas, J., & Davis, S. F. (2000). Academic dishonesty and distance learning: Student and faculty views. College Student Journal, 34(2).
Landau, J. D., Druen, P. B., & Arcuri, J. A. (2002). Methods for helping students avoid plagiarism. The teaching of Psychology, 29(2), 112-115. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328023TOP2902_06
Ma, H. J., Wan, G., & Lu, E. Y. (2008). Digital cheating and plagiarism in schools. Theory into Practice, 47(3), 197-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153809
Zimmerman, M. (2012). Plagiarism and international students in academic libraries. New Library World, 113, (5/6), 290-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074801211226373