MU not using
UGC plagiarism checker despite reminders
Mumbai : Two
months after the University Grants Commission (UGC) made a plagiarism-detection
software available to all higher education institutes in the country, the
University of Mumbai (MU) is yet to use it despite a series of reminders.
UGC is the apex body that governs all higher educational
institutes in the country.
In May, the UGC had issued an exclusive notice to the university
for not implementing any anti-plagiarism framework to screen PhD theses
submitted by students. Soon after, in August, the UGC made the anti-plagiarism
software ‘URKUND’ available on a trial basis to all universities. The trial
started on September 1. However, MU is yet to start using the software, said
sources in the university.
According to official figures, the university receives around 350
thesis and research papers every year from scholars in its departments,
research centres and affiliated colleges. On an average, the university hands
out 330 PhDs annually.
However, none of the theses go through a plagiarism check, said a
senior professor from the university, on the condition of anonymity. The
university had converted its library and thesis department into a cell for
anti-plagiarism methods. “The university doesn’t have a digital repository of
information on scholars as well as their works. This makes it difficult for the
university to screen all PhD theses,” said the professor. Earlier the varsity
had planned to purchase licences for Turnitin software, but the plan did not
take off. Now that the URKUND software is available for free, utilisation of
the software has not started.
University pro vice-chancellor Ravindra Kulkarni was unavailable
for a comment. An official from the thesis department said not all theses are
being screened, but work has already started.
“We are just starting to use the URKUND software. At the moment,
the licence is shared if any faculty member asks for it,” he said, without
divulging details on how many faculty members have accessed the licence so far.
However, no official communication has come from the university about the use
of the software, said professors.
“We have recently purchased the rights for Turnitin software. We are
demonstrating it to faculty members. From now on, all theses will go through
Turnitin,” said pro vice-chancellor Ravindra Kulkarni.
It is important to note that last year, a city college lecturer
had made a complaint of plagiarism against senior Economics professor Neeraj
Hatekar. In the absence of an Institutional Academic Integrity Panel (IAIP),
the university has formed a new committee to look into the matter.
In yet another violation of the UGC guidelines, not all theses are
uploaded on the central repository of Shodhganga. As on date, there are only
214 theses under MU that are uploaded on Shodhganga. “We have started uploading
theses on Shodhganga. It will take some time but we will soon upload all the
research work,” said an official from the thesis department.
In comparison, other reputed state universities such as Madras
University, Anna University, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Benaras Hindu
University and Allahabad University, have been using the URKUND or other
anti-plagiarism softwares for at least two years now. Most of these
universities have special systems allowing one to check any documents for
plagiarism.
This is in accordance with the UGC regulations issued in July 2018
on the Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher
Educational Institutions. The UGC asked the universities to set up IAIP to
promote academic integrity and to develop systems to detect plagiarism.
According to the apex body, any similarity of over 10 per cent in
two documents is considered plagiarism or duplication. The regulatory body also
laid down penalties for plagiarism — no penalty for similarities up to 10 per
cent; revision of script within six months for similarities above 10 per cent to
40 per cent; debarred from submitting a revised script for a period of one year
for similarities above 40 per cent to 60 per cent; cancellation of registration
for similarities above 60 per cent.
Source | Hindustan Times | 15th October 2019
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Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
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