Cheating: An Epidemic

February 28, 2004

INTERNET CHEATING AT BRITISH UNIVERSITIES
Susan Bassnett of Warwick University in the United Kingdom is working to address the growing problem of Internet plagiarism at U.K. colleges and universities. Bassnett blames a higher education culture of mass education for the current situation, in which rising numbers of students engage in “cut-and-paste” cheating and cheaters are increasingly difficult to detect. Academic texts are widely available online, and the tools and strategies to mask plagiarized scholarly work are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Bassnett argues that in a higher education system where much of the grading takes place anonymously, preventing instructors from developing a sense of different students’ writing styles, the odds of spotting cheaters drop significantly. Bassnett is calling for strong punishments for students caught plagiarizing from the Web, including expulsion. Charles Juwah of the Robert Gordon University said his institution is working to address the problem by educating students about their responsibility and what is expected of them academically.

You can read the whole story on the BBC's site.

So, what are YOU going to do about cheating? Make sure your school adopts a zero tolerance policy on this issue.