制定严格规则 严防高校学术造假

Plagiarism has been a problem in China for decades. But recently, more cases of academic fraud have come to light.

Last month, Lu Jun, a professor who was discovered to have plagiarized in an academic paper and lied about his academic experience, was expelled from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

Zhao Guanyin, a professor at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, points to some possible reasons behind academic fraud.

"First, at the institutional level, the evaluation system places great pressure on college teachers. All the evaluations are related to academic research. Second, schools haven't helped students develop good academic habits since they were young. Evaluations of students should have provided more guidance to let them know academic fraud was not allowed. Last, some individuals nowadays cannot concentrate on academic research. Quick ways to success may possibly lead to fraud."

In fact, some universities have already taken measures to try to prevent academic plagiarism.

Liu Hui is a student at the Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

"After a graduate student finishes his thesis, schools will do more checking and comparisons to see whether the paper includes anything from other people's academic work without citation, and to see how much is included. Many college libraries can now do the job. I see on some college websites that some schools have already publicized the names of students whose degrees were canceled because of academic fraud."

According to the Ministry of Education's draft regulation, students will lose their graduation eligibility if they are found guilty of academic fraud.

They also may be prohibited from getting any degrees from any other universities within three years.

In addition, if a student is caught plagiarizing, his mentor could be suspended from duty, removed from his post, or expelled from the university as punishment.

The ministry's draft regulation also mandates that colleges with too many fraud cases will no longer be able to grant degrees.

But some experts say it will take a long time to crack down on plagiarism because the reasons for it are quite complex. They also say the act of plagiarism has deep roots in academia.

Zhao Guanyin says that it is necessary for regulation makers to consider the issue in its entirety.

"The regulation makers need to think about all the reasons leading to academic fraud. A full range of comprehensive and coherent regulations can help resolve the problem. Another thing is how to implement the regulations effectively, without which the regulations are useless."

Zhao Guanyin adds regulations alone are not enough to combat academic fraud. Academic institutions, schools and individuals should work together to supervise each other as well as themselves.

For CRI, this is Robert Costelloe.