Abstract:
Our research focuses on the student perception of plagiarism, the extent to which they truly understand what is meant by the term, and sincerity with which they address the issue in their studies and written assignments. Whether they feel that they have received sufficient input and training from the institution in terms of being able to avoid plagiarising others works. All of which, has a direct impact upon the quality of academic assessment and output in the institution. The OED defines plagiarism as: "…to take and use as one's own, the thoughts, writing or inventions of another", for academic purposes this is better expressed by the Hong Kong University as: “…the unacknowledged use, as one’s own, of work of another person, whether or not such work has been published”, and it is with reference to this definition of plagiarism that we focus this research.2 Our investigations will carry out questionnaire based research on groups of NUST students, ensuring equal weighting of students from the different Poly Faculties to provide the necessary primary research findings for our paper. It is a timely and important piece of research as we transform into a university, and our paper will help to highlight some of the challenges faced by students in terms of their ability to comprehend and address quality and specifically plagiarism issues in their studies, as well as the degree of assistance that they perceive they receive from the institution and staff. Research findings will be both qualitative and quantitative.
