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Media Release

November 18 2003

Cheating, copying, or making a mistake

National conference opens debate on plagiarism in education

UniSA will host the nation’s first conference to look at the controversial issues of plagiarism and other aspects of integrity in education on November 21 to 22.

For the first time delegates from universities, colleges and schools around the country and overseas will come together to take a good look at cheating and plagiarism its prevalence, the differences between deliberate and unintentional plagiarism and the systems educational institutions can put in place to detect and minimise the incidence.

Leading Australian researcher in the field, Helen Marsden says while the topic has been controversial in the media in Australia recently, plagiarism is definitely a worldwide phenomena and the conference will present some of the latest international research dealing with the issues.

Guest speakers include US Professor of Organisational Management at Rutgers University, Donald L McCabe.
McCabe’s research includes a survey of 25,000 students over a 12-year period examining trends in cheating and plagiarism

Visiting specialist Jude Carroll works at Oxford Brooks University as an academic but now also runs workshops around the world on topics linked to adult learning. In the past four years she has been researching deterrents to plagiarism and in 2001 she took part in a national project in the UK to look at the effectiveness of electronic detection systems in higher education that led to the foundation of a Plagiarism Advisory Service now available to all universities and colleges in the UK.

Another highlight of the conference will be a hypothetical to be hosted by Stuart Littlemore QC exploring attitudes and responses to plagiarism in Australia.

Marsden says she hopes the conference will encourage strong debate and open up new avenues for sharing information on how to battle plagiarism, improve the systems to deal with cheats but also assist educators in minimising unethical behaviour while actively encouraging learning.

More information about the conference can be found at www.unisa.edu.au/educationalintegrity

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