Plagiarism seems to be a new word — especially for students.
photos: Thinkstock; Illustration: kanokthip khunteeraprasert
Doing homework and reports by copying search results from the internet without analysing has been accepted practice among students for some time as they can get good grades without putting much thought into the work.
From primary to high school, students might get by this way but at university level, plagiarism becomes a more serious issue that could jeopardise their academic standing and careers.
Under a new standard aimed at stamping out the practice, students could lose their degrees and teachers their career progress if they are found to be plagiarising.
Opinion on the prevalence of plagiarism is divided, with some claiming it is widespread and others denying it occurs on any tangible scale in Thailand.
Early this month, a Thammasat University lecturer failed 10 members of his class after discovering they had plagiarised test answers, calling the practice “deplorable”.
A student who admitted plagiarising materials said it was so common he had not realised it was wrong until his second year at Thammasat, when he met a lecturer who challenged him to think independently.
He said that, until then, his teachers seemed to prefer style over substance, giving the best grades to students who turned in “thicker reports with more beautiful covers”.
“We are not trained to think but to read and remember,” he said.
Several leading schools — including Chiang Mai University and Mahidol University — told Spectrum they had not dealt with any cases of plagiarism. However, anti-plagiarism software is increasingly being used at university level to detect or discourage the practice.
Chulalongkorn did find that a plagiarism case had occurred during a time the university had no detection software. In 2012, the university revoked the 2008 doctorate of National Innovation Agency director Supachai Lorlowhakarn in a case which attracted much local and international media attention.
LACK OF RESPECT
The National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) said the prevalence of plagiarism in education and the workplace could create a generation which lacks creativity and the ability to think analytically if measures are not in place to prevent it.
“The problem of plagiarism is increasing. In this age, when information is in digital form, people can copy and paste easily and many people have learned to do just that,” NRCT secretary-general Soottiporn Chittmittrapap told Spectrum.
He said the root cause of the problem comes from a general lack of writing skills and a lack of respect for intellectual property.
Research, project studies and theses have become more common pursuits, contributing to the rise in plagiarism.
“Some students copy each other’s work or ideas without knowing it violates the original author’s rights and intellectual property. There are also cases where people who copy the work have known that it is wrong but insist on doing so as they have no respect for the author’s rights,” Dr Soottiporn said.
DETECTION SOFTWARE
Probably the most high-profile case in recent years is that of Mr Supachai, whose PhD was revoked in June, 2012, after Chulalongkorn University found he had copied a substantial part of his doctoral thesis.
“After we proved it was really plagiarism, we withdrew his degree,” said Assoc Prof Amorn Petsom, dean of the university’s graduate school.
The dean said Chulalongkorn did not have plagiarism detection software at the time.
However, the university is now using a new Thai language detection program called Akkrawisuth, created by a team from the school’s arts and engineering faculties. “We have used two programs ... the English language Turnitin for three years and Akkrawisuth for one year,” Mr Amorn said.
“Plagiarism destroys the academic development of the country and it shows dishonesty on the part of the student. In academic circles we cannot accept plagiarism, so we have provided measures to avoid it.”
The dean told Spectrum that on June 25, Chulalongkorn and other Thai universities — private and state — will sign a memorandum of understanding to share their databases and allow other universities to use the Akkrawisuth program.
“This MoU will effectively help prevent plagiarism as the information can be searched widely both in English and Thai.
"It covers every level of education — bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree,” the dean added.
NEW GUIDELINES
Chiang Mai and Mahidol universities, which say they have not encountered plagiarism, have nonetheless installed detection software.
Chiang Mai University’s graduate school director, Kwanpavee Ponkasinpapob, said the school would begin using Turnitin next semester and Chulalongkorn’s Akkrawisuth program in the near future.
The NRCT, concerned about the rise in copying, has also issued a standard which includes a guideline manual for publishing academic work and a software program available via the Anti-Kobpae website.
“This kind of program has already been used in many countries but there was no Thai language detector,” Dr Soottiporn said.
"With this version, teachers can check work in both English and Thai; all research and studies from students must be entered into the database.
“There is punishment for copying works. For students copying work to get a degree, their degree will be revoked. Teachers who use the research and study of others to be promoted for an academic position will lose their opportunity for promotion.”
Dr Soottiporn said the standard would soon be promoted widely to education facilities, and should help the NRCT discover the level of compliance and the effectiveness of the checking process.
“The highest risk of plagiarism is the student’s thesis, so we are operating an enforcement on checking among teachers. We explain to them that teachers must act responsibly if their students are found to be plagiarising,” he said.
He also said the general structure of Thai education needed changing to stimulate students to think more independently, as well as to teach them how to gather information and write about it properly.
“We have to build a society that encourages people to be creative,” he said.
NO FREE RIDE
Thammasat University arts lecturer Pipad Krajaejun did not give his students a free pass — he gave 10 students an F on a recent test after discovering widespread copying.
“They might think I am easy-going and would not be strict with their work. Also, I did not have much time to check; I had only five to 10 days to check all 80 tests and around 160 reports, so the students might have thought I would not read them so carefully,” said the lecturer.
“My test is a take-home test and after I checked them all, it was obvious that they copied from the internet and copied from each other.
"Before they sent me the completed tests, I told them that I am always travelling somewhere so they should please send me a digital file, too. In fact, I wanted to check if the answers in the tests and reports were copied from somewhere else.”
He told his students: “It is deplorable that you guys have the ability but never use it.”
Mr Pipad said he’d given Fs to some students in his previous four years as a Thammasat lecturer, but not for plagiarism. It was usually because they had not completed a test or had dropped out of class altogether.
This semester was the first time he had failed students for plagiarism.
“Before I have seen some copying and I gave a very low score like D. I rarely gave an F to students but this semester there was a lot more than before,” he said.
“Ten students got an F from me this time.”
Afterwards, he said, many called him to apologise.
“I think they understand what I tried to communicate. They called me to say sorry and promised me they will never do this again.”
Mr Pipad believes the problem needs to be tackled well before students reach university.
“Teachers in primary, secondary or high school might not clearly define or explain to their students how to write reports, or create something new or encourage them to be creative,” he said.
He also believes the general culture of education needs to change in order to stimulate students to create, rather than to follow others.
Mr Pipad said the emphasis on objective tests should be reduced, and subjective tests should be increased, to encourage independent thought and analysis rather than simply learning facts by rote to check off in multiple choice tests.
“If we encourage students to write reports in which they have to create new topics it will help them learn to be more innovative,” he said.
ACADEMIC CRIME
A Thammasat student, Phongsathon Chankaew from the faculty of social administration, admitted he used to plagiarise.
“I copied some parts of the information from different sources and put it together in my reports and academic writing.
“Most of my friends did the same as we had a short time to do the work — around two days — so we used text from books we could find, typed it, copied some from the internet and put them all together without any references,” he explained.
“Many teachers did not say it was wrong, so we continued doing it until we became used to it and did not feel guilty.”
But in his second year at university, he met a teacher who helped him to see that plagiarism was wrong and taught him how to produce original work.
He feels the proliferation of plagiarism highlights a weakness in Thai education.
“We often copied because we saw that the original version was already good and we couldn't write it that well ourselves. We got knowledge from studying but could not apply it to our own writing,” Mr Phongsathon said.
“For me, I think plagiarism is a big problem for Thai education. We aren't trained to think but read and remember.
"When we face a problem that we need to analyse, we're lost and puzzled.
“We get used to it, especially in high school. Teachers don’t acknowledge plagiarism; on the other hand, whoever had the thicker report with the more beautiful cover did better.
“When we get to university, the study methods are different ... we have to be more focused on analysing, thinking and finding facts by ourselves.”
However, even at university, there are still lecturers who do not take plagiarism seriously, he said.
“There are also many lecturers who don't pay attention to this matter, as we can see that students often choose to study with a lecturer rumoured to give good grades easily and try to avoid working with strict lecturers,” Mr Phongsathon said.
“It also reflects the truth that we are focusing on the grade or the result more than what we get during the process. Many people have already forgotten why they are studying.”
“Plagiarism is kind of academic crime.
"It means you look down on yourself. It destroys the chance to learn and present your ideas.”