Kochi: MG University has come forward to immediately implement the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulation issued on July 31, 2018, to prevent plagiarism in higher educational institutions and research to promote academic integrity.
MGU vice-chancellor Dr Babu Sebastian said that UGC has met the long-standing demand of the varsity in this regard. “We will implement the regulation in its letter and spirit immediately. We have in fact been also looking for ways and means to promote academic standards,” he said.
The University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018, is applicable to the students, faculty, researc-hers and staff of all higher educational Institutions in the country.
Penalties in case of plagiarism in submission of thesis and dissertations vary, according to the new regulations.
The Institutional Acade-mic Integrity Panel (IAIP) constituted by the higher education institution shall impose penalty considering the severity of the plagiarism. The Level 0 implies similarities up to 10% and are considered minor similarities which will not invite any penalty. In the case of Level 1 (similarities above 10% to 40%), such student shall be asked to submit a revised script within a stipulated time period not exceeding 6 months. In the case of Level 2 (similarities above 40% to 60%), such student shall be debarred from submitting a revised script for a period of one year. In the highest Level 3 (similarities above 60%), such student’s registration for that programme shall be cancelled, according to the UGC.
The UGC also asks the Higher Education Institu-tions to declare and implement the technology-based mechanism using appropriate software so as to ensure that documents such as thesis, dissertation, publications or any other such documents are free of plagiarism at the time of their submission.
