International plagiarism conference begins in Newcastle

‘It is essential that the service does this,’ Dr Read said, ‘not just on a technical level but because plagiarism touches on a wide range of cultural and policy issues.’

It is these issues that the three-day conference is addressing and Dr Read praised the Jisc service and its role in raising the debate across the country and at policy levels within institutions. Jisc, he continued, recognized plagiarism as an important issue as early as 2000, establishing the service in 2002.

Dr Read welcomed the conference’s first keynote speaker, Baroness Deech of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. Baroness Deech, the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, began by saying that her office which deals with student grievances, including accusations of plagiarism, where students have exhausted their own institution procedures, dealt with a relatively small but ‘very important’ range of plagiarism cases.

While not ruling on matters of academic judgement, the Adjudicator can investigate adherence to existing policies and procedures in relation to accusation of plagiarism. Institutions must therefore, said the Baroness, be aware of the risks associated with failure to comply with their own regulations.

Acknowledging that institutions ‘go to very great lengths’ to ensure that students are aware of their responsibilities and what the penalties are - through information given in student handbooks, special seminars and tutorials, etc - Baroness Deech called for greater consistency between institutions in establishing and enforcing those penalties. She hoped the conference would begin a debate in this area which would impact on wider practice.
In one of the parallel sessions, Dr Joanne Badge spoke of the use of plagiarism detection software – TurnitinUK, provided by the Jisc Plagiarism Advisory Service - at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester. First year students were given compulsory key skills courses, she reported, which covered note-taking, referencing, bibliographies and included demonstrations of the detection software which, Dr Badge said,

‘acted as a deterrent to students but also gave a very visual demonstration of what plagiarism is and to help them think about their own work’.

Keynote speak Professor Sally Brown looked at how plagiarism is to be addressed in teaching practice. She claimed that students sometimes unconsciously plagiarised because ‘they don’t know the rules, or they understand the rules but just get them wrong’. With Web technologies making cutting and pasting easier, students, ‘belonging,’ she said, ‘to the post-modern, eclectic, Google-generationists, Wikipediasts, who don’t necessarily recognize the concepts of authorship and ownership’ need to be educated in what plagiarism, in fact, is.

But, she claimed, there are a wide range of measures that institutions can take in terms of devising assignments and assessment procedures which make plagiarism difficult, such as assessing work in progress, the use of personal experiences, vivas and orals, assignments which are different for each student to avoid collusion, computer-based assessment and activity-based assessments.

Most important of all, Professor Brown claimed, was to develop a climate that will reduce the likelihood of cheating. Crucial here, she claimed, were measures to help students take control of their learning, ensuring assessment is ‘fit for purpose’, and providing a positive teaching and learning environment in which students

‘recognize that student-centred learning is about changing the way we teach, and about empowering and motivating students.’

For further information about the 2nd International Plagiarism Conference, please go to: Plagiarism conference