Plagiarism Awareness Week helped to inform students of its consequences.

Have you ever been tempted to plagiarise?  Increasing numbers of Kingston University students have been caught plagiarising over the last year, often resulting in failing their modules, but a Plagiarism Awareness Week may have helped to tackle the problem.

Recent figures show that 346 Kingston students plagiarised in assessment work and 27 were caught cheating in exams this year.

The Faculty of Science found 77 plagiarism cases in the academic year 2006/2007 where students copied from the internet or from other sources, particularly in technical assignments. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences detected the highest number of plagiarism cases, finding 150 students guilty.

Student Support Co-ordinator Andrew Casey said: "Since I started in July 2007, 72 students have come solely to me for help with hearings which they must attend when convicted of more serious cases of plagiarism."

In response to the rising tide of plagiarism, the university launched an interactive campaign to encourage students to become more vigilant. Students at each campus were asked by library and Student Union staff to complete plagiarism quizzes in return for Cadbury’s chocolate.

Site based Academic Skills Centres Project Manager Lorraine Allibone said: “The staff of the LRC who worked at the stalls are truly committed to the campaign and should be congratulated for their hard work.”

Early indications show that the responses from the quiz are going to be huge. Our group will identify the common types of plagiarism from the results and help students to avoid it.”

First year financial economics student Dexter Ukaegbu, 19, found the sessions extremely worthwhile. He felt that a lot of people didn’t know the consequences of plagiarism, especially with assignment deadlines coming up.

“I had no idea you might not be able to continue your studies if you were found out – it’s so serious”, he said.

Aileen Creegan, Associate Dean for the faculty of Science said: "None of us enjoys penalising students, but in fairness to those who do their work honestly and to preserve the integrity of our awards, we have to take action. Success for me (along with the benefits to my diary) would be a year when no student in the Faculty was detected committing plagiarism!"

The minimum penalty is getting a zero mark for the offending piece of work and the maximum is expulsion from the course. Any offence, however minor, is recorded on your student file which is used for job references.

But one student at the stall who was convicted of plagiarism last year found the punishment was not serious at all. Second year media student Sara Ijaz, 21, was only issued a written warning and asked to do the work again, with no further punishment from the University:

“It was last minute so I copied information from the Internet. I knew I was plagiarising so thought the punishment would be harsher, but it was fine.”

In response to this, Lorraine Allibone said that Kingston’s aim is to “educate students and not to punish them. We must focus on the educational perspective in order to help avoid plagiarism and cheating.”

Students are encouraged to be extra vigilant and get clued up on how to avoid plagiarism.
Advice is given on Student Space and blackboard (under 'Your Studies'), tips on good referencing are on the library website and there are Academic Skills Centres on each campus where students can get their work checked. Follow these steps to ‘Stamp it out!’, as the slogan says.

Worried about plagiarism? Check out these to get clued up on the ins and outs:

Try here for tips on good referencing.