Ryerson University has extended its definition of plagiarism to prevent students from relying on professional proof-reading services. Ryerson recently amended its plagiarism statement to include: "presenting another's substantial compositional changes to an assignment as your own."
Louis A. Bloomfield, the physics professor at the University of Virginia who was at the center of Virginia's notorious plagiarism scandal in 2001, gives a thoughtful interview in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Rebecca Moore Howard, Syracuse University, provides a provocative perspective in "The Search for a Cure: Understanding the Plagiarism Epidemic."
George Mason has witnessed a dramatic increase in cheating and plagiarism over the past five years. In response to this development, the administration and faculty have begun to stress the school's honor code and instructional methods to discourage academic dishonesty.
Cheating on exams and essays seems to be a way of life for many undergraduates at UCLA. One anonymous student likens the experience of cheating to that of gambling.
In a recent letter to the editor in the Washington Post, Gary Jacobsen suggests that carefully designed assignments render plagiarism detection software unnecessary.
The Oregon Daily Emerald is running a five-part article on academic honesty and student plagiarism. The series includes a feedback form to solicit and publish commentary on the articles.
The BBC reports on current English cheating and plagiarism. Prof Bassnett says students get away with internet plagiarism because of lack of resources to monitor cheating, coupled with the increasing workload faced by lecturers and examination markers. "Even though some universities now have software in place to monitor plagiarism, most markings are done anonymously and therefore you don't get to know the students' individual writing styles." She believes the trend is a result of the mass higher education embarked upon by the government. "When you have mass education you no longer have expectation of excellence. "Students nowadays want to push the boundaries. Universities are becoming degree-producing factories." (via Edupage)