Institutional issues in deterring, detecting and dealing with student plagiarism

In the 1990s in the UK, the problem of student plagiarism was addressed by telling students they must not do it, then by dealing with the small number who did not comply. Policies and institutional procedures drafted before 2000, designed to cope with this relatively straightforward situation, often did not define what was meant by plagiarism (Stefani and Carroll, 2001) or state how offenders would be dealt with. Post-2000 contributors to the growing literature on student plagiarism in the UK began to investigate a range of issues. The complexity of plagiarism as a concept began to be discussed and explored as well as did a growing number of ways in which students can be deterred from doing it. Park (2003) compiled a helpful summary of what he called an ‘extensive’ literature (including 151 items in his own bibliography) on ‘the causes and consequences of student plagiarism’. His summary covers seven areas including: student and staff understanding of what plagiarism is; attitudes and motivations that are linked to unacceptable behaviours; and what is known about its incidence. He states that ‘plagiarism is doubtless common and getting more so’ (p. 271).