Mum varsity cracks down on academic plagiarism

MUMBAI: The University of Mumbai (MU) has adopted the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation aimed at curbing plagiarism in research.

The regulation, notified in July, requires higher education institutes in the country to put in place a technology-based mechanism to ensure that documents such as theses, dissertations, and publications free of plagiarism at the time of their submission.

Under the regulation, institutes need to create a repository of research work on their websites, while submitting the soft copies of research documents to UGC’S Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre, which runs ‘Shodh Ganga’, a panIndia online repository.

Last month, MU’S academic and management councils passed resolutions to adopt the UGC resolution.

However, the decision was only announced last week through a circular to the heads of all the institutes affiliated to the

varsity offering post-graduation programmes.

“The software which detects plagiarism will help curtail unfair means used by researchers. While the software was already available in some universities, the guidelines were given by UGC only recently,” said Murlidhar Kurhade, in-charge dean, faculty of humanities at MU.

The UGC has directed the universities and other research institutes to develop a policy on plagiarism.

Besides, every student submitting a thesis or dissertation will

have to submit an undertaking indicating that the document was prepared by him or her and that the document is original and free of any plagiarism.

The resolution also wants institutes to educate researchers about proper attribution, seeking permission of author and acknowledgment of sources.

To address claims of poor quality and lack of originality in academic papers, the varsity, in June, released a directive to place a new set of rules for eligibility, admission, structure, and evaluation of research programmes.