http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22953742-12332,00.html

Students not punished for copying

Brendan O'Keefe | December 21, 2007 The Australian

UNIVERSITY of New England graduates accused of plagiarism will escape punishment, but staff responsible for upholding academic standards may be disciplined.
UNE chancellor John Cassidy said there was “an ongoing inquiry into the conduct of the staff involved”. The northern NSW university could not say how many staff were under investigation.

Mr Cassidy said the university took “full responsibility” for quality in the masters unit in which overseas students of information technology apparently copied material from the internet.

The unit was taught by UNE's private partner, the Melbourne Institute of Technology, but students emerged with UNE qualifications. There was no evidence of “corrupt conduct” in delivery of the unit, Mr Cassidy said.

In August, when The Australian revealed the allegations of plagiarism, vice-chancellor Alan Pettigrew warned that students could be stripped of their degrees in “the most severe cases”.

“We are not going to shy away from taking the most difficult steps,” Professor Pettigrew told The Australian. “We have to protect academic integrity.”

This week, Mr Cassidy said UNE had decided not to penalise “retrospectively” the former students, who had already graduated, after taking advice from a barrister and external review panel.

The advice “raised questions to do with UNE's conduct and management of the unit, the distinction between intentional and unintentional plagiarism, cultural understanding, natural justice and the time since graduation”, UNE said in a statement.

The UNE plagiarism policy applied to students but might not cover former students who had graduated, the university was advised.

Mr Cassidy said UNE would review the case and take action if any “different evidence” arose “in relation to plagiarism or academic misconduct”.

The higher education sector has been dogged in recent years by plagiarism cases and claims of “soft marking” by universities not wishing to endanger income from foreign students.

In August, UNE revealed that it had examined the work of 210 masters students submitted from 2004 to 2006 and found that a “significant proportion” contained short passages or slabs of text apparently copied from the internet.

In this week's statement, Mr Cassidy said UNE would introduce the plagiarism-checking program Turnitin from first semester next year.

The university would “review and strengthen academic quality management in all existing external partnerships offered in association with UNE”.

Talks had been held with MIT to ensure that appropriate processes were in place and that there was a “full understanding of our mutual obligations”, Mr Cassidy said.

MIT did not reply to a request for comment.

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1 Comment(s)
Able of Brisbane 8:32am December 29, 2007
Plagiarism is a serious issue in all universities I would suggest. I have been tutorng classes for some time and invariably detect 3 or 4 cases of plagiarism in every class. It tends to be more prevalent among international students, I guess because their English language skills are poor. Course convenors tend to take a lenient approach, often giving students he 'benefit of the doubt' or simply shaving a mark or two from their assignment. There needs to be an acceptable national standard as to how plagiarism is dealt with and an expectation that the standard is adhered to. Until students perceive that institutions take this issue seriously we will continue to see plagiarism proliferate.