Memorandum 114
Supplementary evidence from the University
and College Union (UCU) following the oral evidence session on
6 May 2009
PLAGIARISM
"A 2002 study by Patrick Scanlon &
David Neumann, based on a survey of 698 undergraduates in the
US and Middle East, suggested that students think much more plagiarizing
is taking place than they actually report doing.
16.5% reported having "sometimes" appropriated
text without a citation; 8% of students reported having done so
"often" or "very frequently." 50.4% of students
reported that their peers "often" or "very frequently"
cut and pasted text from the net without proper citation.
The study also found that the amount of online plagiarism
reported by students is comparable to the amount of offline plagiarism
from books or other printed sources that has been reported in
studies since the 1960s.
24.5% of students reported "often,"
"very frequently," or "sometimes" having lifted
text from the net without proper citation, 27.6% reported having
done the same with printed texts. Over 90% reported their peers
"often," "very frequently," or "sometimes"
copied text from offline sources without citation.
A 2002 study from CAVAL Collaborative Solutions
claimed that essays by 8.85% of a sample of Australian university
students featured large amounts of unattributed text lifted from
the web. The study, on behalf of six Australian universities,
used Turnitin software in an examination of 1,751 randomly selected
undergraduate and postgraduate essays—from the social sciences,
business, computing, education, health sciences and engineering.
In around 9% of the sample a quarter of the
essay matched other sources, although it is unclear whether that
figure reflects plagiarism. 1.54% of the essays contained greater
than 50% of copied material. Two were copied in their entirety.
In the UK Coventry University reported in 2006
that it had identified 237 students lifting text from online,
expelling seven students. Nottingham University disciplined 53
students but expelled only one. Oxford, Edinburgh, Durham, Newcastle
and Warwick reportedly did not identify any instances warranting
expulsion.
A 2001 study by Donald McCabe of Student Cheating
in American High Schools covered 4,500 students from twenty-five
high schools. 54% had used the net to plagiarise. However, the
research suggested that most of those cheating would have plagiarized
without the net and only 6% of the plagiarists had relied solely
on the net. 22% had submitted work done by their parents.
Many students did not see anything wrong with
cheating (or were merely feeling frisky when completing the questionnaire):
around 50% said they didn't think copying questions and answers
from a test was cheating.
Educause (PDF) notes that 66% of students (and
parents) in another survey said that cheating "didn't seem
like a big deal." That is consistent with the report of Penn
State Uni's 1999 PULSE survey on academic integrity. In US focus
groups involving high school students there was widespread agreement
that
Many of our teachers are clueless when it comes
to the Internet, the material you can find on the Internet is
of sufficient quality to submit on your assignments, and paper
topics are usually so broad that your teachers are not at all
likely to recognise a source you might use.
Scanlon & Neuman however notes that student
practice is context sensitive, affected by the example of peers,
assessment of risk, and understanding of what's involved. Educause
refers to a Berkeley neurobiology professor who found that 45
of 320 students had plagiarised at least part of their term paper
from the net; 15% plagiarised after warnings that he would use
anti-plagiarism technology.
McCabe suggests that attitudes are changing:
High-school students who are growing up with
the Internet, they're having real difficulty distinguishing what
is and is not plagiarism. Many of them are developing an attitude
that anything on the Internet is public domain, and they're not
seeing copying it as cheating."—http://www.caslon.com.au/ipguide17.htm
last accessed 7 May 2009).
Intimidation and bullying at work
The following is a press release with regard
to bullying at work. It is directly related to an individual's
capacity to "speak out" with regard to either areas
of research that are prioritised, the university's reputation
or more general questioning of management policy.
Thursday 6 November 2008: "The University
and College Union (UCU) today (Thursday) names and shames the
universities with the worst reported levels of bullying, ahead
of Friday's national Ban Bullying at Work Day. The union said
the deep-seated problem of bullying at work had to be tackled
by universities and attacked organisations in the sector for failing
to get to grips with the issue".
The UCU survey of 9,700 members working in higher
education revealed that 6.7% of members said they were "always"
or "often" bullied at work and 16.7% said "sometimes".
Only half (51%) said they were fortunate enough to "never"
be bullied at work.
Less than half of all respondents in higher
education (only 45.1%) said they were "never" subjected
to personal harassment at work. 7% said they were subjected to
it "always" or "often" and nearly one in five
(18.8%) said they "sometimes" suffered from personal
harassment.
The university with highest percentage of staff
who said they are "always" or "often" bullied
was the University of East London with 16.7%. In an alarming 19
institutions (table below) at least one in 10 respondents to the
UCU survey reported being "always" or "often"
bullied.
|
| Higher education institution | "Always" or
"often" bullied
| Number of
respondents*
| Academic
staff among
respondents
| Survey sample
academics as % of
institution's total
academic staff**
|
|
| University of East London | 16.7%
| 36 | 33
| 4.9% |
| Kingston University | 15.9%
| 69 | 51
| 3.0% |
| De Montfort University | 14.3%
| 77 | 70
| 5.7% |
| University of Lincoln | 13.6%
| 44 | 37
| 5.6% |
| University of Salford | 12.8%
| 86 | 53
| 4.3% |
| University of Glamorgan | 12.5%
| 48 | 41
| 3.6% |
| University of Ulster | 11.9%
| 143 | 103
| 5.7% |
| Bangor University | 11.8%
| 51 | 36
| 5.3% |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | 11.7%
| 77 | 68
| 3.4% |
| Birmingham City University | 11.5%
| 52 | 33
| 2.0% |
| University of Greenwich | 11.4%
| 35 | 32
| 3.0% |
| University of Westminster | 11.3%
| 62 | 56
| 3.0% |
| Oxford Brookes University | 11.1%
| 45 | 40
| 3.4% |
| University of Gloucestershire | 10.9%
| 46 | 40
| 6.8% |
| University of Hertfordshire | 10.9%
| 46 | 45
| 2.7% |
| University of Dundee | 10.6%
| 94 | 61
| 4.4% |
| University of Portsmouth | 10.5%
| 38 | 29
| 2.8% |
| University of Bradford | 10.5%
| 124 | 80
| 12.1% |
| Queen's University Belfast | 10.1%
| 148 | 124
| 7.7% |
|
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Bullying at
work can take many forms and all of them create stress for the
victim. Everybody has the right to expect to work in a safe environment
free from bullying. Good institutions are ones that are aware
of the problem and proactively trying to tackle it. Poor ones
are those who refuse to accept there may be a problem or try to
place the blame elsewhere.
"We believe bullying to be a deep-seated problem in higher
education and we want to know what organisations such as the Universities
and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) are doing to tackle
the problem."
The results are part of a wider stress survey conducted by
UCU that will be released later this month. The union is hosting
a Tackling Bullying conference on Thursday 27 November.
NOTES
* In its survey UCU used the questions from the Health
and Safety Executive's (HSE) Management Standards Indicator Tool
questionnaire. In its Management Standards Analysis Tool User
Manual the HSE sets a minimum of 10 people for a group that is
being analysed. UCU chose to triple the minimum number of respondents
required from an institution to 30 to give a more reliable response
rate.
** Source: HESA staff record 2006-7.
Leeds Met conducted a survey on bullying in 2007. NB this answer:
Q. 12 Asked—. Do you feel inhibited about criticising
constructively the policies of Leeds Metropolitan University?
Q. 12 Respondents were invited to comment further—Do
you feel inhibited about criticising constructively the policies
of Leeds Metropolitan University?
— 132 respondents provided further comment
— Here are two examples of institutional responses
— "ANALYSIS THAT INDICATES A PROBLEM IS SEEN AS
UNHELPFUL."
— "THERE IS AN ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR AND A FEELING
THAT DECISONS CANNOT BE CHALLENGED CONSTRUCTIVELY—IT IS
TANTAMOUNT TO TREASON
POSTGRADUATES
The committee also inquired about postgraduates and recognised
a major piece of work should be undertaken with regard to their
experiences.
The committee is no doubt aware of the Hefce report from
this year which shows a large increase in numbers.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_04/£exec
UCU and NUS published both an employment charter and a good
practice guide for postgraduate employment:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/0/5/pg_employmentcharter_1.pdf
and there's also a good practice guide:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/8/5/pg_goodpracticeguide_1.pdf
May 2009
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