An holistic educative scheme for managing plagiarism at an Australian university

Shelley Yeo
Curtin University of Technology

Keywords: plagiarism; academic integrity; academic misconduct

Australian universities, like many others world-wide, are reviewing and revising the way that they respond to student plagiarism. Much of this has been prompted by growing evidence that unacceptably high numbers of students are plagiarising: using electronic material without attribution, copying from others, fabricating data or purchasing completed works for assessment submission. Curtin University of Technology has similarly undertaken a review of its procedures and is implementing an holistic scheme for reducing and managing plagiarism. It has opted for an educative approach as the primary means of tackling the problem, with revised policy and procedures for dealing with students who do plagiarise. Among the changes or strategies implemented have been clarification of the meaning of the term plagiarism, development of a new policy, development and trialling of a schema for classifying the seriousness of a plagiarism incident, identification of a level of plagiarism that is not considered 'misconduct', production of 'guidelines' booklets for staff as well as students, and a website with resources for both staff and students.

Staff feedback on the policy and resources has been positive, although some issues in relation to students with developing English competence remain unresolved. A complete evaluation of the approach taken by Curtin will be conducted early in 2007.