A story on tonight's news refers to a problem with some "anti-plagiarism" software that is used by many UK universities. Apparently, this software system experienced difficulties over the last couple of days and it's meant that students' coursework deadlines have had to be extended.
The questions raised by this story are legion :
Why is "anti-plagiarism" software necessary ?
Why do students feel the need to plagiarise ?
Why are universities and their students so dependent on computer systems ?
Why does a problem with a computer system affect coursework deadlines ?
There are, no doubt, many more questions that could be asked, but I'll leave it there.
Plagiarism is cheating. To my mind, any student found cheating should be treated in a very simple way; first offence = a final warning and second offence = expulsion. No excuses, no exceptions.
As well as this issue highlighting yet another problem in our increasingly sick or, as the intelligentsia would no doubt put it, "not fit for purpose", education system, it is also a pointer to the extent of the dependence of our entire society on computers and other electronic gadgets. There can be little doubt that a sudden failure in the communications network, electricity grid or any associated systems could have a catastrophic effect on the performance of universities and of the achievements of their students; this is ridiculous. Students have lost not only the understanding of study, but also how to study; they no longer trawl books and journals in libraries, they us 'Wikipedia', assuming that this is the fount of all knowledge, which it is not. Many of today's degrees are worth nothing compared with those of decades ago, and yet we laud them in ever more extravagant ceremonies; is this a case of trying to obscure mediocrity by a show of opulence, as happens on the television with programmes such as "X-Factor" ?
How can potential employers have any faith in the value of the degrees awarded to students if cheating abounds ? What is the point of telling students they've achieved top grades when the truth is that they've cheated or are simply the best of a bad bunch ?
Our education system is bust.
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