College of College of Graduate Studies

Unisa promotes academic integrity

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Unisa's College of Graduate Studies (CGS) provides a Turnitin programme, an anti-plagiarism detection software, to safeguard the academic quality of the work submitted by students. In addition, the Turnitin programme helps students to identify and correct possible occurrences of plagiarism in their work and improve their academic writing. It also gives students feedback on how to improve their writing skills.

According to Erica Flinspach-Van der Walt, a Research Information and Training Coordinator for master's and doctoral students, the Turnitin programme supports the CGS strategic focus area on promoting enabling support systems that foster the capacity building of academics. "This is to enhance students' academic integrity," she says.

Furthermore, Flinspach-Van der Walt says that the university's academic integrity is to be encouraged and fostered by both students and lecturers through the Turnitin programme. "It is the key value an educational institution holds for all its stakeholders," she stresses.

Flinspach-Van der Walt adds that the Turnitin programme supports the university's vision and mission to serve every country on the African continent while transcending language and cultural barriers and providing quality research.

The programme can be used with any language of the subject field. After students submit their work, it checks submissions for original content and creates the report accordingly.

Flinspach-Van der Walt says plagiarism is identified only if present in a specific submission by the reporting investigator. "This means that specific policies and procedures for different universities are to be applied by the investigator to interrogate report findings."

She further says that since Unisa applied Turnitin as a teaching tool, it enabled academics to identify areas where students struggle and created platforms to address those challenges. "The Unisa application of Turnitin safeguards the originality, which in turn minimises plagiarism. It also discourages unethical behaviour like intentional plagiarism and cheating, diminishing the students' unethical conducts." This programme challenges the academic dishonesty and unethical behaviours of students.

The Unisa Turnitin account has been expanded to ensure the proper application of the tool to promote academic integrity and protect students' intellectual property. Unisa promotes academic integrity and remains committed to educating its students on the importance of honest and moral behaviour in an academic setting. Furthermore, Unisa has zero tolerance for any form of dishonesty or cheating activity related to assessments and exams.

For Turnitin's frequently asked questions, click here.


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* By Lesego Chiloane-Ravhudzulo, Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement

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Publish date: 2023/05/22

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