Awareness about plagiarism amongst university students in Pakistan

Research is an original and systematic investigation undertaken to discover new facts and information about a phenomenon. However a variety of empirical and ethical issues are on the rise in academia, especially plagiarism is quickly becoming part of global educational and research culture. More and more students and researchers are turning to the Internet for cooked solutions and shortcuts for writing assignments, research papers and thesis. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the seriousness of plagiarism amongst graduate and post graduate students of Pakistan. It also explores the university students’ level of awareness of plagiarism. A total of 365 graduate and post graduate students of randomly selected public and private sector universities participated in this exploratory empirical study. A self-reported questionnaire survey was used for collection of primary data. Findings revealed that there was a low level of awareness about plagiarism and university plagiarism policies and processes amongst the students. Findings also revealed that many respondents did not understand what plagiarism is? A significant number of students have fairly admitted that they have intentionally plagiarized written materials. Based on the findings of the study this paper puts forward recommendations to create awareness amongst the students regarding plagiarism, plagiarism policies and provides statistical evidences for formulation of policies and guidelines to combat plagiarism in institutions of higher learning in Pakistan. Furthermore, the paper submits recommendations to minimize the plagiarism based on the authors’ experiences. M. Ramzan (&) N. Siddique M. Asif Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Opposite Sector ‘‘U’’, D.H.A, Lahore 54792, Pakistan e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] N. Siddique e-mail: [email protected] M. Asif e-mail: [email protected] M. A. Munir Superior University Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan e-mail: [email protected] 123 High Educ DOI 10.1007/s10734-011-9481-4