Professor Shirley Alexander is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Teaching, Learning & Equity) at the University of Technology, Sydney. On 12 November 2014, an article of hers appeared in "The Conversation": "Buying essays: how to make sure assessment is authentic." That article traverses, in an abbreviated way,…

This article discusses the role of university academics as researchers. In present-day society which touts instant gratification, the primary role of a university is being undermined. In Malaysia, academics no longer teach and research as they please but are 'guided' by government agencies and influenced by the priorities of funding agencies. One…

"Almost everyone has difficulty identifying where collaboration stops and collusion begins." (Carroll & Appleton, 2001, p.15) In both policy and practice, collusion is a perplexing area of academic integrity. Students are expected to learn to work collaboratively in university courses, yet are often required to submit assessment…

Intellectual property rights have various facets. The best-known one is copyright, enabling the owner to legally utilise intellectual materials. However, there is a separate set of legal entitlements, termed moral intellectual property rights. The purpose of these is to prevent false attribution, damage to an author's reputation and some forms of…

Although a growing body of research has been conducted on student misconduct in universities, quantitative data on disciplinary action undertaken by institutions against student transgressions are largely absent from the literature. This paper provides baseline quantitative data on disciplinary action against students in the universities. It is…

University discipline is an important object of legislative and administrative action in the higher education sector. There have been two waves of concern with university discipline in the post-war period, especially in respect of students: first, in the period of post-war university expansion; second, in the period of commercialisation post-1988.…

One of the issues facing universities operating in a range of market situations and contexts is that of plagiarism. Different universities have taken different approaches in dealing with this issue. In an Australian university context, this issue is of particular concern, given the large numbers of overseas students studying in Australia, and…

Argues that a moralistic approach to plagiarism is not likely to make the problem disappear. New thinking about plagiarism and pedagogy must take its complexity into account, since plagiarism is not always the result of a willful desire to deceive, but may reflect a misunderstanding of the nature of work in the discipline. (SLD)

The rise and fall of David Robinson as Vice-Chancellor of Monash University was a parable for the times. The man who defined managerialism in the Australian context had in 2002 seemed to be at the peak of his powers; a few months later he was gone in disgrace. Paul Rodan reflects on the legacy of a management style which, in the end, left Robinson…

It is argued that academic plagiarism is not addressed as vigorously as needed because the university code of professional conduct is not fully evolved and does not consider plagiarism as malpractice. In treating the problem, it is suggested that one place to start is teaching proper use of citation and annotation. (MSE)

The origins and current use of H-Net, an online humanities network on the World Wide Web, are examined. H-Net currently sponsors 73 electronic discussion lists that reach subscribers in 68 countries. Discussion groups have not met expectations for scholarly exchange, possibly because of plagiarism and copyright concerns. New ventures include book…