Presentation GREATLX Conference irene glendinning impact of policies for plagiarism from coventry univ.

1. Initiative GREAT European Development Partners Co-organization
Impact of Policies for Plagiarism
in HE across Europe
Irene GLENDINNING

2. Impact of Policies for
Plagiarism in HE across Europe
Irene Glendinning
Tomáš Foltýnek
Anna Michalska
510321-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-ERASMUS-EMHE

3. Lead Partner:
Coventry University, United Kingdom;
Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Lithuania
Coordinator: Dr Linas Stabingis
email: linas_lzuu@yahoo.com
Mendel University, Czech Republic
Coordinator: Dr Tomáš Foltýnek
email: foltynek@pef.mendelu.cz
Technical University of Lodz, Poland
Coordinator: Agnieszka Michałowska-Dutkiewicz
email: agnieszka.michalowska-dutkiewicz@p.lodz.pl
University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Coordinator: Dr Catherine Demoliou
email: demoliou.c@unic.ac.cy
Project Consultant:
Jude Carroll, Educational Consultant, UK
Project Conference Sponsors:
Turnitin / iParadigms / IS4U

4. Small beginnings…
June
2009
Oct
2009
Feb
2010
June
2011
Jan
2012
Oct
2011
Oct
2010
July
2010
Jan
2013
Sept
2012
Sept
2013
June
2013

5. IPPHEAE Aims and Objectives
• Identify what is being done to combat
plagiarism in HE institutions across Europe
• Develop tools and resources
• Capture case studies of good practice
• Support interventions for preventing /
detecting plagiarism
• Recommend ways to discourage, find
and deal with plagiarism and academic
dishonesty
• Improve standards and quality in HE
institutions across Europe and beyond

6. Research and Development
ANTON – software tool development
Survey across EU countries
Case studies – exploitation
Analysis, reporting, dissemination

7. Anton
• Software tool for plagiarism detection
• Works within its internal database
– Methods for populating the database
• Compares hashes of the documents
– Plain texts do not have to be stored
• API for batch upload of documents
• Prioritization of documents  speed
• Various input formats (DOCX, PDF,…)
• Customizable
• Output: Similarity report for each
document, overall statistics
• Available at anton.is4u.cz
• www.is4u.cz/en

8. Survey Outputs
•Separate reports for all 27 EU countries
–Executive summary
–Details of research
–Analysis of results
–Recommendations
•Comparison across the EU
•Institutions: 3 questionnaires, 14 languages
•National/senior management Interviews
•Student focus groups
•Almost 5,000 anonymous responses
•Academic Integrity Maturity Model
–Workshop focus
•Tested survey questions – for reuse

9. Anna’s research
• Title:
“Plagiarism and national differences.
Variation in practice and attitudes towards
academic dishonesty among European students”
• Aim:
To find out whether students from diverse European
countries and backgrounds present dissimilar views
towards plagiarism, as well as to explore the existing
concept of the common “European” approach

10. Anna’s research
• Research Methods:
Quantitative: Survey
– conducted on a group of bachelor and master’s degree
students from different HE Institutions across the EU
– part of the IPPHEAE project Survey
Qualitative: Focus groups
– with students who have spent their whole
higher education in the country where
the focus group is conducted
• Focus groups in:
Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Poland,
Republic of Ireland, Romania, Sweden,
United Kingdom

11. Findings
• Great differences between countries and institutions
– Approaches to quality assurance
– Perceptions, awareness – eg what is plagiarism
– Policies and procedures
• Maturity of systems
– Nationally, regionally, institutionally
• Inconsistency in
– Understanding
– Accountability for decisions
– Processes
– Decisions
• Good practice – lots of it (workshop)
• Head in the sand – lots of it
• Acceptance of the need for change - variable

12. Sample student data
I believe I may have plagiarised (accidentally or deliberately)

13. 40% copied word for word with
no quotations, citations,
references - Is it plagiarism?
Eg Bulgaria (n=93) 5-57-14-19-4 %
40% copied with some words
changed with no quotations,
references or in text citations
Eg Bulgaria (n=93) 9-13-11-43-25 %

14. Findings: Policies and procedures
• Sweden maintains national stats, but …
• Focus on research and PhD students, not
bachelor, masters in some countries
• UK and Ireland different, eg transparency
• Students and most teachers calling for
more student training and information
• Separating V Integrating student guidance
• Not all teachers want CPD, “training”
• Use of digital tools – teachers, students

15. Teacher responses: Are cases of plagiarism
handled consistently and fairly?

16. Recommendations
Varies across countries and institutions, examples:
• National support for institution-wide strategies,
including licenses for digital tools
• Accountability and consistency in QA,
assessment grading and academic integrity
• Clear and transparent institution-wide policies
and systems
• More agreement on what constitutes plagiarism
• Fairness and proportionality of sanctions
• Education and training, staff and students
• Comparability of statistics to monitor impact
• Funding for developments
• Strengthen pre-university understanding and
practices

17. Challenges to future progress
• What could change, what would be possible?
• Reaching the right people to kick-start change
• Gaps: low participation, institutions and countries
• Autonomy institutionally and individually
• Overworked, underpaid academics, second jobs
• Large class sizes, under-investment
• Scale of change needed in some places
• Complacency, lack of interest
• Costs in current economic climate
• Fear of identification, exposure
• Shoot the whistle-blower mentality
• Lack of agreement about how to proceed
• Not viewed as a priority

18. What’s next?
• Complete analysis and publish country
reports and evaluation
• Complete and document case studies
– Examples of good practice in plagiarism
prevention and management
– Access to project resources: workshops, quiz
• Disseminate information to people of
influence and try to get buy-in
• Interventions, workshops seminars
• More funding, further projects?
• More research and analysis of existing
data and research tools

19. Would you like to be involved?
• IPPHEAE is a small step on a long
journey
• Are you interested in participating in
further research?
• Devising strategies to bring about
changes?
• Please let the IPPHEAE team know

20. Thank you!
ireneg@coventry.ac.uk
Ippheae.ec@coventry.ac.uk
http://ippheae.eu
510321-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-ERASMUS-EMHE

21. Associated Partners
Media Partners
Sponsors
GREAT European Development Partners
Institutional Partners

22. http://www.projectgreat.eu