The culture of copy and paste is growing as academic dishonesty gets out of hand

University students have mastered the questionable art of getting good grades and even breaking a sweat with top-class degrees.

The deeply rooted vice has even earned the students an additional nickname today; the copy-paste generation! Most of them will attest to the magic of Highlighting, Control C, and Control V: copy and paste.

Copying and pasting, which can be described as plagiarism, is not new to science. It involves copying and pasting the scientific work of another person without this being taken into account.

Cases of academic dishonesty are on the rise, with both undergraduate and graduate students falling victim.

A university student who was with. spoke Kenyans.co.ke on anonymity, confirmed that this is the most commonly used shortcut when completing assignments and other research.

The student found that the copy and paste culture is mainly due to laziness and a love of abbreviations.

“Now I can tell you, no one can sit down and write an academic paper or term paper from scratch. It is troublesome. Materials can be found all over the internet, you just have to be smart, ”noted the student.

“Most of my fellow students don’t have the time to go to the library, it feels like an old school thing, who does that? I find it kind of backward not to graduate because you haven’t done your job has submitted a smartphone and internet access, “the student confines to Kenyans.co.ke.

In 2012, when one of the plagiarism detection software came out, it was found that almost 50 percent of the materials examined for academic purposes were copied and pasted.

In September 2019, Kenyatta University (KU) revoked a doctoral degree from a professor, not even a student, after it was discovered that he had copied a dissertation by a Nigerian Don.

The KU was even forced to terminate the lecturer who was teaching in the social sciences department at the time.

“The KU lecturer received his doctorate on August 4, 2018 for a dissertation he had submitted. After receiving the complaint, the VC set up a commission to review the legitimacy of the claims, ”said a statement from the institution.

This vice happens even though many institutions have clear guidelines against it. In KU, for example, they introduced their policy in 2020, Anti-Plagiarism Policy and Guidelines, which will last until 2022.

The directive aims to fill the gap in the directive on intellectual property rights. Although the institutions recognize that there are proven and documented cases where existing information is used without reference or footnotes to the owners, the guideline seeks to increase scientific authenticity.

Their list of penalties for those found to be replicating other people’s work includes restricting students to submitting their work for review for six months.

In cases where copying is discovered prior to graduation, the student will not be awarded his / her degree and then suspended for a period of one year. In extreme cases, the university council can even terminate the student.

But despite the harsh penalties, some students manage to copy and paste their path to their degrees.

“If the plagiarism is discovered at the graduate school in the examination process, the degree will not be awarded and the student may not submit any further thesis for the examination for the next year part of their policy.

A graduate who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke noted that in Kenya, students are only taught to pass exams. This has now developed into a deeply rooted culture that makes you want to go the extra miles in getting things done. You only use the shortest route to get it done.

“In Kenya we learn to pass exams, not to gain knowledge. Rarely have I been so excited about doing a task because I thought I wanted to research it and get it right. I just wanted to use all my means to get a good grade. ”“ Said the graduate Kenyans.co.ke.

Mumma and Company attorney Christian Andole advocates that the country currently lacks clear laws to prosecute plagiarism cases.

He argued that different institutions internally set their rules for copying and pasting crime.

“Different institutions have different rules for dealing with such cases. Most of the time, they allow at least 13-15 percent of the copied works to pass through. You cannot definitely say that you have a monopoly on knowledge,” he said.

Andole added, “Even if such a case is filed by an institution, the student can still argue that the content was not used for commercial purposes, depending on how much content is considered copied.”

In one such case, the lawyer noted that a student was defending himself on the grounds of “fair use”.

In his opinion, most university students get away with these crimes and there is nothing other educational actors can do about it.

“At the moment, most institutions prefer only small sentences because nothing big can be done to prosecute students.”

A lecturer who also talked about copy and paste noted that it reduced the value of research and most students get away with it.

He further noted that even faculty in some institutions deal with large numbers of students, making it difficult to double-check details to see if the work submitted is being copied and pasted.

“At the moment, most of the facilities are understaffed. This made it difficult even for tutors and lecturers to review and filter out copied and pasted work. As a result, most of the students graduated without any problems, ”emphasized the lecturer.

He added, “Students don’t really have that passion for exploring and acquiring knowledge. They just want to get good grades and graduate degrees so they can get jobs and just get on with their lives without having to fight a lot.”

As a result, most students copy and paste their path to academic success only to meet their Waterloo in an intellectually sophisticated workforce.

JKUAT Vice Chancellor Prof. Victoria Wambui Ngumi during a graduation ceremony.

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