HEC cracks down on faculty plagiarism

The HEC has warned universities of blacklisting faculty members involved in plagiarism.

ISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission has directed universities to take appropriate action against those faculty members involved in plagiarism, or the commission will take unilateral action.

According to the directions, every university has to constitute a Plagiarism Standing Committee consisting of three senior professors, one subject expert, one HEC nominee and a student, if the case pertains to any student.

The Plagiarism Standing Committees are entitled to take action against teachers or students involved in plagiarism.

The HEC has also warned of blacklisting faculty members involved in plagiarism if concerned universities refrain from taking action in this regard.

As mentioned in a previous report published in The Express Tribune, HEC is encouraging institutions to use Turnitin, a software which tracks plagiarism, to check assignments, papers and reports.

Turnitin helps students and instructors review matches between the submitted work and internet sources. The software can scan citations, quotations, and bibliographic material to determine an overall similarity percentage.