HEC probing 18 cases of plagiarism

Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Javaid R Leghari on Saturday said the commission was currently probing 18 cases of plagiarism.
“The HEC received 104 plagiarism cases from different stakeholders since 2006, out of which 86 cases have been resolved while 18 are in the process at the university or HEC level,” he said while speaking to the members of the Quality Assurance Division. Leghari reiterated HEC’s commitment to ensure quality at all levels of the higher education without any compromise.
“We must also remember that justice delayed is justice denied,” he stressed. The HEC chairman said the Plagiarism Policy, circulated by HEC in 2007, provided complete guidance about process of investigation, procedure for constitution of Plagiarism Standing Committee and punishment. “The policy apprises students, faculty members and staff, who are involved in research, about plagiarism, its different manifestations and about respective consequences and punishments,” he said.
Leghari said universities were expected to address the major reasons of plagiarism, adding that time management, promotion stress, imbalanced workload distribution among teachers, weaker writing skills, different educational background, new learning environment and lack of research publications culture were among the list.
“These factors may contribute towards an environment where researchers reproduce already published information with their names so that they may be promoted on time.” Universities are required to constitute a Plagiarism Standing Committee comprising three senior professors, one subject expert and an HEC nominee, and a student representative if case pertains to any student.
Universities are given 90 days to investigate the case. In case, a university is not taking any action, HEC Plagiarism Standing Committee plays its part and may blacklist those faculty members, who are not entitled for any financial benefit from HEC. Their names remain in blacklist until appropriate action is taken by the respective university.
He said the HEC provided the Plagiarism Detection Service, Turnitin, to all public sector and private sector universities for capacity building as well as facilitate them to implement the plagiarism policy with greater efficiency. “This service helps in identifying similarities with the online content.