Examination of Witnesses (Questions 160
- 168)
MONDAY 23 MARCH 2009
MS CARLY
ROWLEY, MR
TOM DUTTON,
MR ADAM
HODGSON, MR
JOEL MARTIN,
MR GEMMA
JEROME AND
MR EDWARD
NUSSEY
Q160 Chairman: Will it?
Mr Nussey: Yes and we have to
sign a form saying that we have not plagiarised or colluded on
any aspects of it.
Q161 Chairman: What about John Moores?
Mr Martin: I am not sure I have
ever heard of any instances where people have been disciplined
for plagiarism. I have certainly heard of instances of collusion
where people have colluded on certain course work and been disciplined
for it.
Q162 Chairman: Right so the third
years do not simply sell the stuff to the second years and the
second years to the first years? That never happens?
Mr Martin: No, I do not think
so.
Q163 Chairman: You would never dream
of it?
Ms Jerome: Maybe it does actually
because some of the psychology modules I was on in level two do
have up to 250 people in huge lectures, and rarely is the full
amount there and the content does stay the same. I have a friend
who is doing the exact same course work that I did and I could
have given him mine and said model it on that. Obviously I did
not.
Q164 Chairman: Of course!
Mr Martin: I have never heard
of that so—
Mr Hodgson: I guess plagiarising
maths is somewhat more difficult than it would be for other subjects.
Does it happen in the university? Yes, it does happen in the university.
I cannot say I know anyone personally but being involved within
the Student Union I do know that it happens.
Mr Dutton: If it happens, and
I imagine it does happen, I have never heard of it.
Ms Rowley: I have heard of one
person in particular, I do not know how much detail we need to
go into, it was a dissertation that got sent in and then it was
picked up that something was not referenced and it has meant that
she has had to resit that module this year and could not graduate
last year. That is quite tough for her. We have to sign a consent
form to say that we have not plagiarised. We have not actually
got much in the way of software at the moment. It is not plagiarism
detecting, this Turn It In thing, but we were introduced to it
as writing tutors. We have been told that it is going to be up
to individual departments as to whether they want to implement
it into their own area as to whether Turn It In is going to be
used in all subjects or it might just be used in some.
Q165 Chairman: Can I finally very
quickly run down the line in terms of the National Student Survey
on student satisfaction. Were any of you involved in that?
Mr Nussey: No.
Ms Jerome: Yes, through the Student
Union.
Q166 Chairman: And you filled it
in? Was there a good response from Liverpool? Were a lot of students
involved at Liverpool, apart from Edward?
Ms Jerome: It was a relatively
good response, yes, I think it was higher than before at least.
Mr Martin: I myself filled it
in and I think our Union has done a lot of work to push students
to do it as well.
Mr Hodgson: I filled it in but
after I filled it in they told me that they had not received my
details so I had to go through some kind of special submission
to make sure it was put through. I made a personal effort to do
it. I know the Student Union has done a little bit to try and
get it done but it sits somewhere around 33 per cent of students
who fill it out at John Moores. It is a bit pointless.
Mr Dutton: No.
Q167 Chairman: You have never seen
it?
Mr Dutton: No.
Q168 Chairman: Carly?
Ms Rowley: I have filled it in.
We were introduced to it through a graduation briefing session
that it was important to fill it in.
Chairman: On that note, could we thank
you all enormously for coming this afternoon, for sitting through
the earlier sessions, and for giving us your time in such an honest
and forthright way. We thank you very much indeed.
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