Abstract
Context. Universities are often required to lay the
ethical foundation of student behaviour and none is
more prevalent than the issue of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity
although it is not specific to the academic
community alone. The aim of this paper is to assess
students’ understanding of plagiarism and
plagiarism policies, the extent to which they engage
in plagiarism practices, and their perceptions on the
adequacy of training workshops on writing practices
for undergraduate and post-graduate students at a
metropolitan university in South Africa.
Problem and results. Contradictory evidence was
found about the students’ understanding of
plagiarism. The prevalence of plagiarism was
perceived as low amongst students. The students
seemed to understand plagiarism policies as the
majority indicated awareness of departmental
penalties for student plagiarism and perceived these
penalties to be fair. Additionally, the results
revealed that different faculty departments placed
equal emphasis on plagiarism and that the students
perceived the university and the department’s
workshops on academic writing and plagiarism to
be adequate.
Solution. This study highlights that South African
universities mirror the global trend of increasing
student plagiarism practices and that efforts to
improve academic integrity should adopt global best
practices while taking into account local
characteristics.