Impact of Unethical Practices of Plagiarism on Learning, Teaching and Research in Higher Education: Some Combating Strategies

In rendering education in general, particularly in higher education institution (HEI), a fundamental question arises as to how to judge the authenticity of an intellectual work against plagiarism (i.e. submitted assignments, research manuscripts, or teaching materials where sources are not mentioned or claimed by someone of his own). In the current era of information technology, the Internet and other electronic media are extensively used for its potential to improve educational experiences for all the stakeholders: students, researchers and teachers. As people are free to find and use wealth of information, in many of the cases, they are tempted to adopt plagiarism through copy-and-paste instead of assistance. Over decades, a variety of methods of plagiarism detection and prevention have been proposed such as a) plagiarism detection using electronic tools [1], [2], [3], b) improving learning and teaching ethics by conducting specialized courses, c) penalizing persons responsible for their guilt, d) creating awareness about copyright act and cyber law, etc. None of them alone could eliminate the temptation of practicing plagiarism by the students, researchers and surprisingly even by the teachers. Thus comprehensive plans and strategies are necessary to combat plagiarism for effective rendering of education. In this paper, we identified some impacts of plagiarism on learning, teaching and research. In doing so, we interviewed (both open and close ended) students, teachers and researchers from six universities in Bangladesh [4]. The sampled data is analyzed to identify most widely practiced means [5], [6] of plagiarism by three target groups (i.e. students, researchers and teachers) and how they are being currently dealt with by the authority. Finally, strategies are suggested for combating plagiarism, which are a) inclusion of some articles on plagiarism in the existing copyright act and cyber law, or creating a separate plagiarism act, b) practice of code of ethics- - against plagiarism at HEIs through active work-groups to monitor and combat plagiarism, c) including plagiarism in the secondary and undergraduate syllabuses, research and development guidelines for conducting thesis and research papers and arranging seminars and lectures to stop plagiarism, etc.