Intellectual Trafficking among Students of National Water Resources Institute, Mando Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Intellectual trafficking has become the order of the day among undergraduate students and even academic staff today. Many in higher  education have encountered the phenomenon of intellectual trafficking which is known to be plagiarism, piracy and copyright  infringement. This study was conducted to ascertain the level of intellectual trafficking, awareness of what constitutes intellectual trafficking and its consequences amongst student of National Water Resources Institute Mando Kaduna State. The study adopted survey  research method. The population of the study is 52 students drawn from selected students from ND1, ND2, HND 1 and HND 2 of the  Institute and the entire population was studied for this research. Questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The finding revealed that students are not aware on what constitute intellectual trafficking and its effects. Students were not aware of how to avoid  all forms of intellectual trafficking and they are not also aware of the consequent penalties attached to all forms of intellectual trafficking.  The study identifies the effects of intellectual trafficking to include Destruction of student reputation, demeaning of professional  reputation, degradation of academic reputation, attraction of legal repercussions and monetary repercussions from these findings, the  paper recommends the use of plagiarism checker software to curb intellectual trafficking and educate students on the effect of  intellectual trafficking, as many students get involved in intellectual trafficking due to ignorance of the associated consequences.