Abstract:
The study investigated postgraduate students’ knowledge of plagiarism, forms of
plagiarism they commit, the reasons they commit plagiarism and actions taken
against postgraduate students who plagiarise at Mzuzu University in Malawi. The
study adopted a mixed methods approach. The quantitative data were collected by
distributing questionnaires to postgraduate students and academic staff whereas
qualitative data were collected by conducting follow-up interviews with some
academics, an assistant registrar and assistant librarian. The study found that despite
students reporting that they had a conceptual understanding of plagiarism, the
majority of them reported that they had intentionally and unintentionally committed
plagiarism, mainly due to pressure for good grades (86.7%), laziness and poor time
management (84.9%), and lack of good academic writing skills (84.9%). The study
also established that prevalent forms of plagiarism admitted (by students) and
reported (by academic staff) to have been committed included lack of proper
acknowledgement after paraphrasing (69.8%), summarising (64.1%) and using
quotation marks (56.6%). The study further found that the common sanctions
applied by academics include giving a warning and asking the student to re-write
the plagiarised work. The study recommends that Mzuzu University should carry out
awareness campaigns about the negative effects of plagiarism, targeting
postgraduate students; and should introduce advanced academic writing skills
training for postgraduate students.
