Plagiarism Cases in UK Universities
According to a Nursing Standard investigation, the cases of academic misconduct among nursing students in the UK have been on the rise over the past four academic years. There has been documented the appalling number of more than 2,500 cases of plagiarism, cheating and forging signatures. For instance, in the University of Brighton, four students falsified their practice documents within the course of the past two studying years. And nearly 80% of the thousands of cases involved plagiarism.
Facing Consequences
The types of punishments students face for their misconduct differ from one educational institution to another. As far as college plagiarism cases are concerned, students are very likely to have their marks decreased by 40% or even to fail the course. Some universities practice making students, who are guilty of plagiarism, write long essays on honesty and nurses’ negligence unacceptability.
When it comes to the practice of documents falsification, in most of the cases the punishment is to redo practice placement. However, these cases are so rare that they have to be treated with precision. All the circumstances of one such instance have to be taken into consideration. For example, there was a case when a student had to forge a signature because the mentor forgot to sign all the required pages. Obviously, such a student should not be punished as strictly as the other offenders, who had no excuse for their actions.
Academic Offence Leads to Professional Ones
By subjecting students to punishments for their misconduct, universities’ authorities try to make nursing students realize that there is a close connection between committing offence during studying and while being a professional nurse. It is emphasized how important it is for a future health care worker to be honest and to always follow the rules.
Also, a great number of universities’ spokespeople agree on the fact that nursing students’ part-time jobs should not impede their academic results. Many students have to succumb to plagiarism or cheating simply because they work too much and, as a result, do not have enough time for studying. However, education should be their highest priority. In future, people’s lives will depend on them. That is why they are obliged to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills.
Detecting Plagiarism
With the advent of technologies, detecting plagiarism cases among nursing students has become much easier and effective. After plagiarism detecting software was introduced to universities, teachers have become able to spot plagiarism 5 times more efficiently.
