Lifestyle - Half of Cambridge students admit to plagiarism

London, Oct 31 (ANI): Nearly half of students at Cambridge University cheat, reveals a new survey.

The survey has shown that 49 per cent of undergraduates claimed other people's work as their own while studying at the world famous institution.

The anonymous online poll of more than 1,000 students found those studying law were the worst offenders with 62 per cent of them breaking the university plagiarism rules, according to student newspaper Varsity.

The university is now planning to introduce special plagiarism detection software to tackle the problem.

"It's a depressing set of statistics," the Telegraph quoted Robert Foley, a professor in biological anthropology at King's College, as saying.

At St Edmunds College, 67 per cent said they had broken the rules.

Only 5 per cent of students who took part in the survey said they had been caught plagiarising while 80 per cent said they thought the university already did enough to punish it.

Many students blamed their intense work load for cutting corners, while others said they did not understand the university's definition of plagiarism and were surprised to know they had broken the rules.

"Sometimes when I'm really fed up, I Google the essay title, copy and throw everything on to a blank word document and jiggle to order a bit. They usually end up being the best essays," said a Land Economy student at Pembroke College.

An Oriental Studies student at Girton College added: "Of course I use other people's ideas without acknowledging them, but I didn't think that this made me a plagiarist."

Ant Bagshawe, academic affairs officer at the student union, said the university needed to do more to punish cheats.

He said: "If the university is not going to take teaching people about plagiarism seriously, then it has to expect headline figures like these."

But the university denied they did not take plagiarism seriously.

A statement from the university said: "The University regards deliberate acts of plagiarism as a serious and potentially disciplinary offence which can lead to failure to obtain, or withdrawal of a degree.

"Disciplinary regulations and the penalty framework are under review to ensure that they are appropriate and clear to ensure that disciplinary action can be taken as necessary." (ANI)