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Day: 19 August 2015

Internet not responsible for plagiarism, says report

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

The widespread reputation that the internet has for a rise in plagiarism in academic work seems to be a false one, after a study showed that levels of plagiarism in doctoral theses was slightly higher in those written before the advent of the internet.

In a paper published in the Journal for Academic Ethics, researchers compared 184 doctoral dissertations from before 1994 with 184 from after 2010. Using the anti-plagiarism software Turnitin, they measured the mean similarity index and found a level of 14.5 per cent in the pre-internet papers as compared to 12.3 per cent in the newer papers.

On the whole around 50 per cent of both sets of theses contained some sort of material that lacked attribution.

David Ison, assistant professor of Aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, who produced the research, said the preconception that the internet bred plagiarism was based on “unsubstantiated or perfunctory reports of the internet causing a significant negative influence on student work.

“Most of the blame on the internet for a degradation of academic ethics or its subsequent effect of increasing plagiarism is unjustified, relying… on news headlines, student self-report studies and conjecture.”

According to Times Higher Education, over 3000 papers have been written since 1999 on plagiarism and the internet, despite there being “little statistical analysis of cheating,” according to Ison.

He hopes to “provide faculty, administrators, researchers, and the media with relevant empirical evidence to guide discussions and policies about plagiarism in academia,” and wants to move beyond the demonisation of students, to a focus on educating students in how to produce proper academic work.

Guidance muse be “provided to all levels of students to better inform them about proper citation methods and academic ethics,” rather than just using indiscriminate software to spot cheaters, he says.

Straight-A* student denied student loan due to immigration status

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

An Iraqi-born student who has lived in the UK since the age of nine achieved four A*s in his A-levels—and was denied a student loan, under the rule that only UK citizens or those with indefinite leave to remain in the country qualify.

Hassan al-Sherbaz was brought to Britain in 2006 with his parents who fled Iraq, where he witnessed daily “killings in the street.” However, his immigration status of discretionary leave to remain means that he must pay full international fees of £26000 per year, if he wants to attend his dream university Imperial College, London.

The Milton Keynes resident attended both primary and secondary school in the city, and achieved the top grade in his maths, further maths, physics, and chemistry A-levels. He met the offer to study Chemical Engineering at Imperial, but was told he did not qualify for a student loan.

He wishes to go into a career in oil, and wants to “[help] society and the environment.

“It was a very big shock [when they refused],” said al-Sherbaz. “I was thinking what am I going to do and how am I going to afford this. But I was very motivated to prove myself that I can get through this.”

Back before the family left Baghdad so that Hassan’s father could take up a Ph.D. in this country, the capital was “very dangerous. There were killings in the street. It was something that was part of our daily lives.”

Just for Kids, the legal firm that brought a similar case before the supreme court—resulting in a ruling that stated that total, unquestioned exclusion for anyone not a UK citizen or with indefinite leave was unjustifiable—said: “Our experience suggests that young people find not being able to go to university, when that would be a natural educational progression alongside their peers, incredibly difficult. They have worked hard to do well at school and at college, and aspire to achieve the best they can.

“Seeing their friends and peers go to university when they cannot, and being aware of being held back for as long as ten years in pursuing qualifications that are essential in a competitive job market, inevitably causes these young people to feel marginalised.

“They feel that it is deeply unfair as they are not asking for a grant of money but only to be loaned the money which will allow them to progress, alongside their peers, into well-paid work so that they can pay that loan back.”