Uni Cheats Racket: A Case Study in Plagiarism Investigation

Abstract

Some students cheat by buying solutions to assignments and paying other people to sit their exams. We investigated such a case in 2001, in which around thirty students appear to have obtained material from a private tutor. Some details were reported in the press during 2003 when a student and the tutor were sentenced in court. In this paper the case is reviewed. It has lessons for plagiarism management and disciplinary processes, and highlights gaps between academic perceptions of plagiarism, communityattitudes, and student behaviour.