Plagiarism, an increasing crime in the academic world has reared its ugly head in Jawaharlal Nehru University again, with teachers stating that the current system of checks through software has failed. This has forced the university teachers’ union to form their own committee to look into the issue.
“There has been an increase in the number of plagiarism incidents being reported. In one Centre of the University, the Chair reported that there was more than 50 per cent plagiarism in many of the dissertations. Yet, these students obtained not only pass grades but good grades. This impacts the University standards and leaves a poor impression of our University on the external examiners. As word spreads, even our good dissertations will be viewed with suspicion by the academic world,” said Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association president Arun Kumar.
The teachers have found out that research scholars have found different ways to get around the software. “This software catches certain phrases and sentences that are electronically available in any publication. A minimum repeat of such sentences exposes plagiarism. There are several plagiarised works that are never caught simply because it is not available online. Also, some students get their work translated from Google translator and then translate it back, there are some changes and it never gets caught,” explained Prof. Kumar.
The teachers are worried since the university mostly produces students who go into academics themselves. They also feel that the current relationship between a teacher and student was being affected because of this. “The University administration seems to be satisfied with mechanically solving the problem via use of software but it is not dealing with the wider underlying issue of relationship between the teacher and the taught. Further, we need an institutional mechanism to deal with the issue so that individuals are able to deal with the matter in an effective manner. Since the University administration is not willing to deal with the wider issues, JNUTA has decided to look into the matter,” Prof Kumar said.
“Students who plagiarise not only break the trust of their supervisor/teacher but have little respect for the faculty member concerned. Some students feel that teachers harass/ discriminate against them on various grounds using the pretext of plagiarism. It also hits at the root of knowledge generation which is the key aspect of research. While technology helps research it is also creating problems. Students who plagiarise and get away with it are likely to continue to do so in the future also and that would damage the research ethos,” he added.
