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Lecturer re-marked 15 essays in two hours: plagiarism probe
September 7, 2004 - 4:14PM
A university lecturer took just two hours to re-mark 15 essays that one of his colleagues believed to be substantially plagiarised, the NSW corruption watchdog was told today.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption today began hearing how the University of Newcastle dealt with allegations of deliberate plagiarism by 15 overseas students at a partner institute in Malaysia in early 2003.
There was a possibility the fee-paying students at Institute Wira in Malaysia were advantaged over other students, counsel assisting the commission Chris Ronalds said.
"To provide any advantage to overseas fee-paying students over Australian-based students funded by commonwealth government assistance is seen as antithetical to the very foundations of the university sector," Ms Ronalds said in her opening.
The basis for the investigation was a complaint made by a casual lecturer in the Newcastle Graduate School of Business, Ian Firns, to the university vice-chancellor.
Mr Firns was concerned that 15 instances of what he described as "deliberate, serious plagiarism" for which he had awarded marks of zero had been overturned, Ms Ronalds said.
On re-marking, Mr Firns' original hand-written comments were whited out by administrative staff on the instructions of a senior academic in the graduate school.
The essays were then re-marked and the students given marks of between 19.5 and 29.5 out of 35 for their work.
"(Senior lecturer) Dr (Rachid) Zeffane was able to mark all fifteen essays in an afternoon in just over two hours," she said.
Ms Ronalds said there was a new, formal, written policy on student plagiarism introduced at the university in November 2002.
This policy was not followed, she said.
The commission will examine whether the handling of the matter by the university amounted to a breach of public trust by public officials.
The hearing, before Assistant Commissioner Peter Hall, is continuing.
Lecturer re-marked 15 essays in two hours: plagiarism probe
September 7, 2004 - 4:14PM
A university lecturer took just two hours to re-mark 15 essays that one of his colleagues believed to be substantially plagiarised, the NSW corruption watchdog was told today.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption today began hearing how the University of Newcastle dealt with allegations of deliberate plagiarism by 15 overseas students at a partner institute in Malaysia in early 2003.
There was a possibility the fee-paying students at Institute Wira in Malaysia were advantaged over other students, counsel assisting the commission Chris Ronalds said.
"To provide any advantage to overseas fee-paying students over Australian-based students funded by commonwealth government assistance is seen as antithetical to the very foundations of the university sector," Ms Ronalds said in her opening.
The basis for the investigation was a complaint made by a casual lecturer in the Newcastle Graduate School of Business, Ian Firns, to the university vice-chancellor.
Mr Firns was concerned that 15 instances of what he described as "deliberate, serious plagiarism" for which he had awarded marks of zero had been overturned, Ms Ronalds said.
On re-marking, Mr Firns' original hand-written comments were whited out by administrative staff on the instructions of a senior academic in the graduate school.
The essays were then re-marked and the students given marks of between 19.5 and 29.5 out of 35 for their work.
"(Senior lecturer) Dr (Rachid) Zeffane was able to mark all fifteen essays in an afternoon in just over two hours," she said.
Ms Ronalds said there was a new, formal, written policy on student plagiarism introduced at the university in November 2002.
This policy was not followed, she said.
The commission will examine whether the handling of the matter by the university amounted to a breach of public trust by public officials.
The hearing, before Assistant Commissioner Peter Hall, is continuing.
