Thousands of students desperate to pass at our tertiary institutions, are increasingly resorting to plagiarism and cheating.
According to a 2014 Sunday Times investigation, 1400 students at the universities of the Witwatersand, Johannesburg, Stellenbosch and North West, as well as Unisa, among others, have been found guilty of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, in the past year.
These figures are just the tip of the iceberg, because many cheats are never caught.
Higher education Deputy Minister Mduduzi Manana has commented: “We don't need half-baked graduates in our country. We need graduates who have acquired enough knowledge to take it forward.”
Stopping the scourge of cheating is a challenge. It might start with the illicit photocopying of books and extend to plagiarism of assignments and cheating in exams.
“Illegal photocopying is causing enormous losses to the bookselling and publishing industry not to mention the infringement of academics’ and other authors’ intellectual property rights,” commented Stephan Erasmus, MD of Van Schaik Bookstore.
Many students are dependent on bursaries and cannot afford to fail, or are simply ill-prepared for the demands of university and resort to cheating when they cannot cope.
The solution seems to lie in instilling a morality in student culture through awareness education programmes about cheating and plagiarism, and in taking uncompromising action to weed out cheats.
“We have said to our institutions that they must tighten all loose ends. Those who think they can get away with murder and cheat must be exposed,” said Manana.
For example, in response to widespread cheating, Unisa barred 519 students from studying for at least three years for using 'unauthorised material' during exams, and permanently expelled 20 students for buying or selling exam papers.
STOP ILLEGAL PHOTOCOPYING: Please assist us in protecting intellectual property by reporting illegal photocopying. SMS Tip Offs to 32211 – all information is treated confidentially.
