University cheats on rise

By REBECCA WALSH and NZPA

Nineteen Victoria University law students are being investigated over allegations of plagiarism as cases at Waikato University also surge.

The investigation, believed to be the biggest ever into student cheating at Victoria, has shocked universities around the country.

Law school dean Matthew Palmer said the investigation was launched after the students handed in similar research assignments.



Professor Palmer said the investigation into the Legal Research and Writing programme assignments could have serious consequences for the students, who would be interviewed during the next two weeks.

Those found guilty of plagiarism would be ineligible to sit the end-of-year exam and would have to repeat it next year.

Professor Palmer said the assignment had been revised this year but was similar to those in previous years.

Students were encouraged to work in groups but were given clear guidelines about plagiarism.

A website where students could download essays had nothing to do with the inquiry, he said.

University representatives spoken to yesterday were shocked by the situation at Victoria and said they were not aware of any cases of cheating on such a large scale.

Dr Wendy Craig, director of student and academic services at Waikato University, said that allegations of plagiarism at Waikato were increasing, with a record 17 cases investigated last year.

Students faced a range of penalties - from loss of marks to suspension.

A student was suspended for the first time for plagiarism last year.

But Dr Craig said the number of cases was small in terms of the student population.

In about 50 per cent of cases, students were genuinely unaware they were guilty of plagiarism by failing to credit sources from books or the internet for their work.

Dr David Brook, deputy vice-chancellor at Auckland University of Technology, said AUT dealt with about four or five cases a year.

Plagiarism was not a major problem but was a "fairly serious sin" in the academic world, he said.

Two or three cases of plagiarism reached Auckland University's discipline committee last year.

Professor Raewyn Dalziel, deputy vice-chancellor (academic), said website plagiarism was a major problem for all universities but was reasonably easy to detect.