“Title arousal” issues in German Education

Another German Minister with Doctoral Difficulties. BBC News recently reported on German minister Annette Schavan having her doctorate withdrawn following accusations of plagiarism. This comes barely two years after another minister was found to have plagiarised parts of his dissertation. It's a rather unhappy picture: A German university has voted to strip Education Minister Annette …

Not Guilty, Your Honour: students and cheating

Honour codes and cheating Two fascinating stories recently about students cheating and responses to it. All universities face the issue of how to educate students on the importance of honesty and integrity in academic study and avoiding plagiarism and other forms of cheating. Many US institutions have what is called an Honour Code to which …

Firsts and fees, plagiarism and pay hikes (and the rest)

No dumbing down here - is this the most comprehensive HE piece ever? Daily Mail online has a terrific piece which manages to conflate a host of different higher education issues within a single kick ass column. On the back of recent HESA data which shows an increase in the number of students achieving first …

Cheating: Only a Click Away

Another plagiarism concern Previous posts here have covered related matters including online plagiarism, plagiarism in admissions essays and a video attempting to advise students on plagiarism. A recent piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at students cheating through the use of clickers. Kevin D. Livingston, an associate professor of biology at Trinity University, …

University “cheating league table”

A rather dubious league table The Telegraph has a story based on reported incidences of plagiarism which it describes as an: investigation into cheating at universities, with thousands of students caught plagiarising, trying to bribe lecturers and buying essays from the internet. As noted in a previous post this issue is really about improved detection …

Online plagiarism crackdown “catches thousands”

Tackling plagiarism It seems that it is still difficult for newspapers to report intelligent steps to tackle plagiarism in a non-sensationalist way. See for example an earlier post on the Sun's coverage of cheating by students. The Scotsman is the latest offender in reporting steps taken by universities to tackle plagiarism: THE number of Scottish …

Detecting Plagiarism in Admissions Essays

Tackling plagiarism in admissions According to The Chronicle of Higher Education some colleges in the US are stepping up their efforts to detect plagiarism among applicants: About 25 universities and 20 application services are testing a plagiarism-detection service offered by iParadigms, the same company that provides Turnitin.com, a popular tool for catching plagiarism in academic …

Fun ways to tackle plagiarism

Tackling Plagiarism A really entertaining approach to this challenging issue from the University of Bergen

“Plagiarism up 700%” at University of Nottingham

Slight misinterpretation of non-comparable data According to a shocking report in Impact, which doesn't let facts get in the way of a sensational story, plagiarism is up 700% at the University of Nottingham: The University of Nottingham has insisted that cheating is not skyrocketing among its students, following the emergence of figures which show a …

The Sun investigates academic offences

The Sun seems to have a new found interest in academic offences. It says that "160 exam cheats were booted out of university last year". According to the respected journal: DIMWITS with notes scrawled on wrists and arms were among 160 exam cheats booted out of university last year. The brainless old wheeze of writing …

Help from Mum and Dad

BBC Education has a report on this wonderful phenomenon: Parents are paying hundreds of pounds for degree-course essays for their children studying at university, claims an essay-writing service. The essay company, UKEssays.com, says that 78% of student customers buying essays are using their parents' money. "The students will talk about the essay they want and …