Awareness and Incidence of Plagiarism among Undergraduates in a Nigerian Private University

Abstract

This study examined students’ awareness of plagiarism in Babcock University, one of the earliest established private universities in Nigeria. The study also assessed the incidences of plagiarism among students and the perceived factors responsible for the plagiarism. Out of the 200 copies of a structured questionnaire randomly distributed to students, 169 copies (84.5%) were returned and used for the analysis. The results indicated that most of the students lacked adequate understanding of the behaviours that constitute plagiarism and are thus more likely to commit unintentional plagiarism. Copying from the web without attribution is very common as more than 60% of the students admitted doing that. The ease of accessing information from the Internet, the desire to earn good grades, a poor knowledge of appropriate citing principles and the pressure to meet assignment deadlines were mentioned by the students as the most prominent reasons for plagiarism. A significant positive relationship was found between levels awareness and incidence of plagiarism, indicating that awareness of behaviour that constitutes plagiarism may not deter students from engaging in it. The study recommended that academic institutions should discourage unintentional plagiarism by teaching students the techniques of appropriate summarisation, paraphrasing, citing and referencing, by embarking on value reorientation to encourage honesty, diligence, fairness and academic integrity among student, and by adopting strict policies and sanctions against intentional plagiarism.