NEW DELHI:
Students can lose their registration and teachers their jobs if found guilty of
plagiarism, according to new regulations for higher education institutions
notified by University Grants Commission (UGC) on Friday.
The
rules not only mandate setting up of plagiarism detection tools, but
institutions must also train students, faculty, researchers and staff on the
usage of these software.
There
are four levels of plagiarism, with “Level 0” not inviting any penalty and
“Level 3” earning the most severe penalty, which is “registration for that
programme shall be cancelled” and in case of degree already obtained he/she
“shall be asked to withdraw manuscript, denied a right to two successive annual
increments, shall not be allowed to be a supervisor to any new Master’s, MPhil,
PhD student/scholar for three years.”
The
UGC had approved the regulations in its meeting held in March 2018 prescribing
graded punishment for plagiarism.
The regulations were notified after the
approval of the ministry of human resource development last week and the UGC
“reserves the right to remove difficulty/difficulties in the course of
implementations of these regulations in consultation with the Government of
India/Ministry of Human Resource Development.”
The rules specify every student submitting
a thesis, dissertation, or any other such document shall submit an undertaking
indicating that the document has been prepared by him or her and that the
document is original work. The undertaking shall also declare that the document
has been duly checked through a plagiarism detection tool approved by the
institution and each supervisor shall submit a certificate indicating that the
work done by the researcher under him/ her is plagiarism free.
The new regulations prescribe that if any member
of the academic community suspects with appropriate proof that a case of
plagiarism has happened in any document, he or she shall report it to the Departmental
Academic Integrity Panel (DAIP).
“DAIP shall investigate the matter and
submit its recommendations to the Institutional Academic Integrity Panel of the
Higher Education Institutions, which can initiate proceeding,” the regulation
said.
Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA-4th August,2018
