Clarke Olivia, Chan Wai Yin Debbie, Bukuru Saddam, Logan Jenae, Wong Rex
Educational Development and Quality Center, University of Global Health Equity, Butaro, Rwanda.
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA.
High Educ (Dordr). 2023;85(2):247-263. doi: 10.1007/s10734-022-00830-y. Epub 2022 Apr 13.
Plagiarism is a serious type of scholastic misconduct. In Rwanda, no research has been conducted to assess university students' attitudes and knowledge of plagiarism and if they have the skills to avoid plagiarizing. This study was conducted to assess knowledge of and attitudes towards plagiarism, as well as ability to recognize plagiaristic writing, among university students in Rwanda. An online questionnaire containing 10 knowledge questions, 10 attitude statements, and 5 writing cases with excerpts to test identification of plagiarism was administered between February and April 2021. Out of the 330 university students from 40 universities who completed the survey, 75.8% had a high knowledge level (score ≥ 80%), but only 11.6% had a high score in recognizing plagiaristic writing (score ≥ 80%). There was no statistically significant association between knowledge level and ability to recognize plagiaristic writing ( = 0.109). Lower odds were found in both diploma/certificate and bachelor students of having high knowledge as well as of having high ability to recognize plagiaristic writing than in master's students. Although respondents generally disapproved of plagiarism, approximately half of the respondents indicated that sometimes plagiarism is unavoidable, and self-plagiarism should not be punished in the same way as plagiarism of others' work. Inter-collegial collaboration on effective plagiarism policies and training programs is needed.
剽窃是一种严重的学术不端行为。在卢旺达，尚未开展任何研究来评估大学生对剽窃的态度和认知，以及他们是否具备避免剽窃的技能。本研究旨在评估卢旺达大学生对剽窃的认知和态度，以及识别剽窃性写作的能力。2021年2月至4月期间，开展了一项在线问卷调查，问卷包含10个知识问题、10个态度陈述以及5个带有节选内容的写作案例，用于测试对剽窃的识别。在完成调查的来自40所大学的330名大学生中，75.8%的学生知识水平较高（得分≥80%），但只有11.6%的学生在识别剽窃性写作方面得分较高（得分≥80%）。知识水平与识别剽窃性写作的能力之间不存在统计学上的显著关联（ = 0.109）。与硕士研究生相比，专科/证书生和本科生在具备高知识水平以及具备高识别剽窃性写作能力方面的几率更低。尽管受访者普遍不赞成剽窃，但约有一半的受访者表示，有时剽窃是不可避免的，而且自我剽窃不应与剽窃他人作品受到同样的惩罚。需要开展校际合作，制定有效的剽窃政策和培训计划。
