Plagiarism among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Applied Science at a South African higher education institution

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate plagiarism among undergraduate students at a higher education institution in South Africa. There is evidence from previous studies that plagiarism is increasing world wide among higher education students. The emergence of the Internet has made plagiarizing worse as students can easily copy and paste information from the World Wide Web. This study investigated the occurrence, causes and trends of plagiarism among students in the Faculty of Applied Science at a higher education institution. It also examines student awareness of institutional policies and guidelines regarding plagiarism.