PLAGIARISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Saras Restuningtyas

Plagiarism and thief: It's just the same!

 

        Kokemuller (2016) stated that plagiarism is an activity using someone's work or writing and using it as your own word without permission. Plagiarism has not become a commonplace at this time. The simple way of plagiarism makes students often do it. They still do plagiarism because they do not know what will happen when lecturer and university know about their bad behavior.

        Osman & Rachman found a fact that Indonesia has broken rules and needs to fix it, as Deputy Minister for National Education, Fasli Jalal said in the interview about plagiarism in academic world. The most important thing when we learn in academic is honesty. If there is something like plagiarism in the academic world, there will be zero tolerance. So, schools might need to consider their policies about plagiarism again to prevent plagiarism in Indonesia.  

 

        First, plagiarism gives failure for the students. Certainly, every school has policies. All of students who violate the policies will be punished according to what they have done. As well as plagiarism, schools will give the punishment to the students who plagiarize someone's work. Whether students just do it in the small assignments or even they do it for their thesis, they all will be punished because plagiarism is just the same as stealing other people's copyright. If students do plagiarism in the small assignments, they will get zero for their assignments. As a result, of course, they will not pass the course. It is the beginning of their failure. 

        Second, it does not give the impact for students only but also gives the bad impact for university. Plagiarism in the school shows that lecturer does not teach the students well. It means the teacher does not try to explain more about plagiarism, how to prevent plagiarism and the impact of plagiarism. Therefore students still do not have an understanding of what plagiarism is and why they must avoid it. If many students in the school do plagiarism continuously, it will decrease the quality of school's degree. It also gives the impact to all students who study in that school. They can not find a job easily because of the decreasing quality of their school. Companies will assess that the school is not good because of some students who do plagiarism.

        The last is depriving the purpose of learning the process. Basically, schools teach students to think creatively. Creativity, which is the opposite of plagiarism, is someone's ability to develop or produce something different and pure (Kokemuller, 2016). The simple way of plagiarism will make students continuously do the same thing. Plagiarism will make students lack of knowledge and can not think creatively. It will give the future impact for the students who do plagiarism. After graduate, of course, they will find a job. If students always "copy and paste" someone's work, are they able to do it in the future? Schools and workplaces are totally different. Students can not do it in workplaces because the most important thing when you work is independent. Being independent means you should work by yourself. Sometimes we need someone to help us, but it is not always right.

        In Indonesia, students still do plagiarism in higher education. They still do not know whether it is plagiarism or summary. So, with those three statements that I have explained, hopefully, students will more understand about the effects of plagiarism and they will think twice to do plagiarism. If they want to use someone's word, at least they should paraphrase the word. Do not just "copy-paste" someone's word in your paper if you do not want to be called as a thief. In this case, the role of the school is important to mitigate plagiarism in higher education. 

REFERENCES:                                                                                                                                                           

Kokemuller, N. (2016). How plagiarism affects students. Seattlepi. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://education.seattlepi.com/plagiarism-affects-students-1023.html

Kokemuller, N. (2016). The effect of plagiarism on students. Synonym. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://classroom.synonym.com/effect-plagiarism-students-1306.html

Osman, N., & Rachman, A. (2016). Indonesia needs ‘zero tolerance' toward plagiarism: Academics. Jakarta Globe. Retrieved October 13, 2016, fromhttp://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/archive/indonesia-needs-zero-tolerance-toward-plagiarism-academics/