On December 3, 2014 at 1:30pm, Mount Kenya University’s disciplinary committee meeting was called to order. Agenda: To discuss the fate of 5 students who had allegedly plagiarized their research projects. After meeting each of the students in question, the committee, sitting at Kicukiro campus, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The Education Times, resolved that 4 out of the 5 students choose a new topic, redo the proposal and submit it for defence. And the reason was simple: Their work (or part of it) was similar to some other people’s work. In short, they were guilty of plagiarism — the "wrongful appropriation” and "stealing and publication” of another author’s "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

According to an investigation by The Education Times, academic theft is on the increase in higher institutions of learning.

As the world becomes more competitive, people of all age groups have increasingly flocked universities to acquire or improve their academic papers with the hope of getting better career prospects. 

In the quest of juggling work, and the academic responsibilities coupled with family responsibilities, such people have ended up looking for easier ways to pass exams and graduate-an aspect which has increased cases of plagiarism, according to university dons this paper talked to.

A senior lecturer at the University of Rwanda who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of these mature students have families and work to take care of which leaves them with limited time for studies. 

"Probably this explains why a number of them usually resort to hiring people to help them with research,” the lecturer said.

Juggling studies, work and home responsibilities is very challenging.  Many depend on the Internet or pay money to classmates to assist them,” he explained, adding that it has enabled many get good grades through such illegal acts without being detected.

However, even among the young students without work or family responsibilities, plagiarism is rampant.

According to a second year student at Kigali Independent University (ULK) who identified himself as Nshimiyimana, group assignments have indirectly promoted plagiarism. He says because of the big numbers, lecturers divide students into groups of 20-30, and ask them to research and do coursework together.

"Whenever we are given coursework, only one or two students out of the 30 actually do the work and yet after that hustle, everyone’s name is written on the script.  In the end, everyone (active or passive) shares the good grades,” Nshimiyimana says.

He explains that such an arrangement, although good for bonding and brainstorming, can be counterproductive as it promotes laziness and discourages research among the passive learners.

Such learners are the same people who resort to plagiarism when time for doing personal research before graduation sets in.

Dissertation shops

Most university courses these days require a student to write a dissertation or thesis in their last academic year. Fortunately for some ‘research experts’, the general laziness of students is a great opportunity to mint some money.

The experts in writing proposals and dissertations target desperate students. They charge anything from Rwf100, 000 to Rwf300,000  for every dissertation done. 

But because of the big number of ‘clients’ sometimes they pick old literature review from their archives and use it in order to deliver on time. Unfortunately, most students cannot recognize that since they don’t want to leave their "comfort zones”.

According to lecturers who supervise students during research, at the end of the day the students who go to these research proposal writing mercenaries, end up presenting the same research proposals at University, like it was the case with the four students from Mount Kenya University.

This has caused problems for some of the students. A senior lecturer who sits on the vetting panel in one of the universities, says he has encountered several cases of plagiarism when students are defending their research.

"Some students completely fail to defend what their dissertation is about, making us suspect that it is not their work. Others just copy data from the Internet, paste it and hand it to their supervisor. This bad habit has denied many students a chance to graduate,” he explains.

David Rugaza, a lecturer at the University of Kigali, with six years of experience as an educator, warns that students who depend on plagiarism tend to be less passionate about studies and less creative in life.

"A student who can’t do their own dissertation obviously can’t apply what he studied at the work. This leads to incompetence and eventually stagnation in career growth or termination at the workplace,” Rugaza adds.

However, Rugaza says universities are aware of the challenge and are working out mechanisms to curb the vice. He says many universities have acquired plagiarism software detectors to curb plagiarism. According to technology.com, the software can extract text from an essay and check whether it matches text from other sources, such as documents available online. It basically scans the World Wide Web for algorithms with any consistency of one phrase or sentence of one’s paper to a source. It provides a detailed report indicating sections of plagiarism and its origin. 

Rugaza says plagiarism is a crime and attracts severe punishment. For instance a student may be asked to find a new topic and write a fresh proposal and dissertation, repeat a year or be suspended. He adds that universities have a mutual partnership where if a student is found to have plagiarized, they cannot be admitted to any other university in the country.

Innocent Mugisha, the acting executive director-High Education Council, says they have designed a number of anti-plagiarism measures to discourage the practice.

 "Plagiarism is a punishable offence and there is no room for cheating in education. Students are aware of such punishments and we’re doing everything possible to make plagiarism history in education,” he says.

What students say

Emmanuel Hakorimana

Students should constantly be reminded about the danger of plagiarism during lectures. I’m sure this would bring down the rate of this bad practice. However, culprits should also be punished to discourage others.

Genevieve Umuhoza School authorities should publicly punish any student involved in that crime. Some universities treat students involved in plagiarism with kid gloves and this just escalates the problem. They must be firm on this because it’s also good for their image.

Ibrahim Uwihoreye

Lecturers should always give assignments that largely require creativity or brain storming, rather than borrowing information from already established sources. That will reduce the level of cheating.

Nshimiyimana Claude

The Ministry of Education together with all universities should carry out anti-plagiarism campaigns aimed at sensitizing students about the dangers involved. It’s possible that some of them may even not know its criminal.

Maurice Boshya

Institutions should install plagiarism detecting software on their work implements like computers.

Such devices would help net learners who engage in plagiarism.