Plagiarism and Globalization in India

INTRODUCTION:

UK has always been a favorite destination for students seeking good quality higher education. The tradition still continues and the country still attracts a large number of foreign students seeking higher education. The advancement in technology has brought about a sea change in the way Information is gathered and used. The Internet unleashed the reservoir of information from the nook and corners of the globe for millions across continents. At one place, where the global exposure and ease in access of information opened many vistas for the knowledge thirsty students to enrich themselves with knowledge without limits, the same means and sources of information has also been used by many in unscrupulous methods-to indulge into unfair academic practices.

This essay is an attempt to critically analyze the problem of Plagiarism and other unfair practices among International students of the Universities of UK and tries to suggest measures for checking them. An attempt has been made to view these practices in both cultural as well as educational perspectives.

Main body:

Plagiarism may be defined as using others ideas and words and presenting them as one’s own without clearly acknowledging the source of that information, paraphrasing someone else’s writing, providing incorrect references with the intention of cheating and collusion. (Maurer H, Kappe F and Zaka B)
Plagiarism is a larger phenomenon, which is attributed to both domestic as well as international students. But the understanding and perception about plagiarism among the students from different cultural settings differ a lot. Most of the Eastern cultures considers the knowledge as a common property, which is free to be used for anybody in need, and hence the concept of paying royalty for the use of that particular piece of knowledge each time is not considered necessary. This is the reason why the approach is very much evident in the students from these countries who comes to UK for higher studies after completing their graduate courses from their respective countries. A survey conducted under guidance of Mr.Zaigham Mahmood of the University of Derby, among the Students of his university reveals that about 75 % of the Asian students never even heard of the term before coming to UK for post graduate studies.
Maurer et al [1] categorizes plagiarism as:
Complete Plagiarism: Here the student copy words and ideas from different books or internet, with some reference being given. This qualifies to be plagiarism because the work does not contain a real effort by the student. . (Andrew Northedge 2005) Partial Plagiarism in this type of plagiarism directly copied things and unacknowledged things are included in the assignment.
Accidental: due to lack of knowledge of plagiarism or understanding of the need of correct referencing.
Unintentional: Many times students plagiarize not knowing that they are doing the same.
Intentional: Where student deliberately plagiarize with an intention to deceive, thinking that his act will not come to the notice of invigilator.
Word Switch: It happens, when one copy of ideas or sentences into the assignment and add some words to it to twist the author is another type of plagiarism. It is a good idea to give the gist of the concerned information than to do copy and past.
Self plagiarism: plagiarizing from one’s own previously published work.
(Zaigham Mahmood, 2009)
Apart from this, many students finds it difficult even to paraphrase a given sentence. The following two examples illustrates the difference between them:
The automobile revolutionized the American way of life. The earliest significant change was for farming families, who were no longer isolated. The automobile enabled them to drive to towns and cities comfortably and conveniently. Another important change was that people had the freedom to live and work wherever they wanted. In fact, people could work in a busy metropolitan city and drive home to the quiet suburbs. The final major change brought about by the automobile was the building of superhighways, suburbs, huge shopping centres, and many theme parks such as Disney World in Florida.
Source: University of Portsmouth, 2008, Academic Writing Skills, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth – page 19.
Paraphrasing1.
Invention of automobiles changed the way Americans live their lives in significant way. The country dwellers found themselves more connected with the main lands, and mobility became a matter of convenience. This automobile revolution was accompanied by a spur in the development of transport as well as entertainment infrastructure. As stated by University of Portsmouth, 2008
The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activities will change the climate by enhancing the natural greenhouse effect, leading to an increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature. This warming may be partially offset in certain regions where air pollution leads to high concentrations of small particles in the atmosphere that block sunlight.
Source: United Nations Environment Programme in Slaght, J. and Pallant, A. (2004) English for Academic Study: Writing: Source Book. Reading: Garnet Education.
Paraphrasing 2:
Increased activities by human being that cause a rise in the green house gases in the atmosphere; causing increase in the median surface temperature on the earth. But even this increase in temperature is countervailed by the high engrossment of dust particles in the atmosphere, another effect of air pollution, which blocks sunlight thus reducing the heat on surface.
(Source: United Nations Environment Programme in Slaght, J. and Pallant, A. (2004)
The kind of students that each of the colleges attract has a great bearing on the number of students who plagiarize. The top notch college of the country attracts the best of the students from other countries, who comes to this country with the main purpose of learning. The admission and screening process of these colleges are designed in such a way that only serious and deserving candidates can manage to get admission in them. The students who clear all the entry barriers will be really serious about studies and enhancing their skills. They will put the best of their efforts in academic excellence and the quality of the thesis they produce will carry that mark in them. They hardly think of plagiarizing because their objective is not simply winning the degree certificate. But the trend is different in most of the other colleges. For many, getting a student visa is a first step to migrate to this country, at least for some years. For the ones who come to UK for this purpose, studies are never the prime objective and they find it difficult to cope with the way of handling academics. For many, it takes months to understand the dialect even and another some good time till they are able to write something with confidence. This period of initial perplexity is quite crucial for them and hence many try to do just anything to clear the assignments on time. Sometimes the means they employ may turn out to be dubious like plagiarizing.
Burnett (2002 cited Park, 2003) suggests that a number of international students do not enter British Higher Education Institutions with adequate study skills e.g. essay writing, referencing, note-taking. Biggs and Burville (2003) also highlight the difficulties faced by all students to whom English is a second language of putting source material into “their own words”. Ryan (2000) also notes the problems faced by these students in understanding the differences between:
Quoting, Embedding sources and Plagiarism
A number of reasons were suggested by staff in a study by Roberston et al. (2000) to explain why international students may be tempted to plagiarise:
Difficulties comprehending the content of lectures
Difficulties understanding subject-specific terminology
High speed of delivery in lectures and seminars
Difficulties in interpreting the English language.
(Chris Keenan & Peter Jammenson,)
There are certain cultural factors to the reason why students from certain countries tend to plagiarize more. In many Eastern countries, the one with knowledge is highly respected and their knowledge becomes the common asset of the society. The very fact that they are quoted itself is a matter of pride for them and the very ability to quote extensively from other’s work itself is considered as a sign of wisdom. That is the reason why most of the leaders and orators of oriental back ground are found quoting in volumes from religious and other books of epic proportions. In many cases students who had spend large part of their life spent in these countries find the dividing line between plagiarism and fair way of taking ideas and quotes very thin.
But when these students get international exposure, it is necessary that they follow the more accepted forms of academic practices and get themselves adjusted to it. They need to put extra efforts to reach up to the level of rest of the students and gain the maximum from the academic sessions they receive from the colleges.
The students from different cultural backgrounds and nationalities give the universities of UK a unique opportunity to grow into centre of excellence where the students of each of these universities gets exposure to different cultures, which students graduating from their respective countries often does not get. Universities of UK should take full advantage of this rich cultural multiplicity to provide the best academic experience for their students. But at the same instance, a strong message needs to be passed on to students of every country warning them of the consequence any sort of unfair academic practices.

Recommendations:

The students need to be sensitized and made aware of the seriousness of the problem and unethical nature of Plagiarism and other unfair practices in the first hand.
The tutors also need to be sensitized about the cultural reasons why international students find it difficult to understand the concept of plagiarism at all and special care need to be put to make them not feel culturally hurt or ill treated.
The students need to be given first hand demonstration of source reference and mentioning of sources and quotations in the appropriate manner. Let them see how to do it and the tutor can assist her in doing so after giving a plan of assignment and mentioning a list of reference materials. Some quality training on paraphrasing will also be of great use.
Internationalization of curriculum is another important factor. Case studies and topics relevant in trans-national context need to be included so that students do not feel that what they are studying is complete foreign in nature. Internationalization of curriculum is more important than ever before now owing to the unprecedented growth and development being witnessed in information and communication technology which gave access to knowledge like never before.
Another way to make international students understand the western methods of writing reports and studies is to group them with local students in the initial days in the college itself and assign group tasks. Strict guidance should be given regarding the expected results and let the students interact with each other and bring out result in groups. This will help international students get acquainted with the western ways of doing academic assignment and they can imbibe the positives of it.

Conclusion:

Plagiarism and other academic misconducts are endemic to academic circles in different countries in varying degrees.
Unfair practices from the part of students, to a great extend result from the poor perception of the students of the reason why they pursue a particular course of study. Many see an academic degree as a passport for a better paying job and hence do not realize the value of the true knowledge one ought to acquire during the course of one’s academic life.This puts a great onus on the academicians, who should instill the value of knowledge and make the students realize through live examples that it is the knowledge that creates value for one and not the degree one holds. As a Vedic rhyme of Hindu
mythology says
“It is knowledge that makes you humble;
The humbleness makes you able
Ability draws wealth
Through wealth comes Dharma (virtue) and thus one attains peace”
(Source: Thaithireeyopanishad)
Students’ resorting to unfair practices is the repercussion of a deep rooted cultural decay, which crept in to the educational systems of different countries when the system of education started getting identified as a commercial venture. Knowledge has been given shape of a commodity, by the forces of market, which can be bought and sold. But one should realize that knowledge has a higher virtue above all these notions and once that understanding is attained, one would become a true seeker of truth through knowledge. It is the duty of the teachers at the schools and universities to guide their students to that very path of accomplishment.