IIT to tighten screws on plagiarism, malpractices
Vikrant Dadawala TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror
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Strict guidelines proposed, including fail grades, community service for copying, to suspension for two semesters for more serious offences
In an open house meeting held with student representatives and faculty members on Thursday, the ethics committee of IITBombay has proposed strict guidelines regarding academic malpractices. Punishments -including a fail grade, community service and suspension for two semesters -are set to become part of institute rules, if cleared at a meeting next month.The premier engineering institute has been under pressure to tackle problems of plagiarism from published research, and cheating in projects and take-home assignments, after an internal survey two years ago revealed a significant number of students felt that ethical standards were low and needed improvement.
A survey of outgoing students, conducted last year by the student magazine Insight, had painted a grim picture, with more than 50% confessing to cheating during their course.Another survey found that exchange students from foreign countries did not have a high opinion of students' ethics with around 75% saying yes to the query “Is the average student at IIT-B more likely to use unfair means than one at your home institute?“ Only 15% of exchange students felt that teachers at IIT-B were as strict in punishing cheating, while 40% said IIT-B teachers were more lax (the rest selected the `Can't say' option).
In two years since the internal survey, individual departments have adopted a stricter attitude towards malpractices, but no common rules for the entire institute were agreed upon. According to students, while some professors made use of plagiarism detecting software compulsory, others had not.
The punishments proposed at Thursday's meeting ranged from a fail grade plus community service for offences such as copying in exams or assignments, to suspension for two semesters for serious offences such as impersonating another student in an examination.Student representatives plan to conduct a referendum to solicit opinion regarding the rules.
“This is a positive move, though one that took time in coming. Plagiarism devalues all our efforts and the establishment of common rules will help create a general culture of ethics,“ said a student who attended the open house discussion.
“While we may not have reached the high standards of the West, it is widely known that the problem of cheating is far less at IIT-B compared to other Indian universities. The proposed rules reflect how serious students and faculty are about tackling the issue,“ said a research scholar.
A survey of outgoing students, conducted last year by the student magazine Insight, had painted a grim picture, with more than 50% confessing to cheating during their course.Another survey found that exchange students from foreign countries did not have a high opinion of students' ethics with around 75% saying yes to the query “Is the average student at IIT-B more likely to use unfair means than one at your home institute?“ Only 15% of exchange students felt that teachers at IIT-B were as strict in punishing cheating, while 40% said IIT-B teachers were more lax (the rest selected the `Can't say' option).
In two years since the internal survey, individual departments have adopted a stricter attitude towards malpractices, but no common rules for the entire institute were agreed upon. According to students, while some professors made use of plagiarism detecting software compulsory, others had not.
The punishments proposed at Thursday's meeting ranged from a fail grade plus community service for offences such as copying in exams or assignments, to suspension for two semesters for serious offences such as impersonating another student in an examination.Student representatives plan to conduct a referendum to solicit opinion regarding the rules.
“This is a positive move, though one that took time in coming. Plagiarism devalues all our efforts and the establishment of common rules will help create a general culture of ethics,“ said a student who attended the open house discussion.
“While we may not have reached the high standards of the West, it is widely known that the problem of cheating is far less at IIT-B compared to other Indian universities. The proposed rules reflect how serious students and faculty are about tackling the issue,“ said a research scholar.
