Another constraint is the absence of detailed guidelines on how
to put the process into practice.
Though professors and faculty members of
various institutes have welcomed the move, they think the directive will add on
to the burden for them as finding a perfect online tool to detect plagiarism,
other than the open softwares available at present, is a challenge.
BENGALURU:
While the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to take
steps to fight plagiarism, professors and students are concerned about the
practicalities of the move.
They
point out that there are various constraints such as unavailability of
appropriate software, working pattern of the process and the overall
implementation of the decision.
In its recent circular the AICTE stated that
as many as 10,399 technical institutions have been asked to use credible
anti-plagiarism software and tools to check all their academic and Research and
Development (R&D) related activities, including undergraduate (B.Tech) and
postgraduate (M. Tech) project reports, apart from Ph.D thesis and research
publications.
Though
professors and faculty members of various institutes have welcomed the move,
they think the directive will add on to the burden for them as finding a
perfect online tool to detect plagiarism, other than the open softwares
available at present, is a challenge.
“As
technology developed, students have started to use online rephrasing tools to
stay safe from plagiarism checks even for class assignments. Such matter then
needs human check as most of them fail to convey a meaning. Such software
powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) would curb the problem, but by when, is
the bigger question,” said Prof Surya Varchasvi, assistant professor at the
department of Electronics & Communication at CMR Institute of Technology
(CMRIT).
Another
constraint is the absence of detailed guidelines on how to put the process into
practice. University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) Principal Dr
K.R. Venugopal believes a similarity index on the lines of the University
Grants Commission (UGC) draft would help managements of technical institutions
to take effective actions to curb the menace.
“Undergraduate
and postgraduate students should be given a relaxed slab on the similarity
index allowing 40% and 35% for them respectively, while doctoral thesis works
should be brought under the 20% slab, requiring more originality. While over
one billion people are pursuing technical courses in the world, expecting
originality in every idea put forth is impractical,” he said.
“As
part of formulating the Review of Literature chapter for a dissertation
presentation, we had recently found that some paragraphs were copy-pasted and
presented to us earlier from a thesis submitted by one of our professors
themselves. The focus on this matter should be equally set on professors and
researchers as well,” demands Suhail R, a final year telecommunications
engineering.
