Research scholars may not be able to get away with ‘cut and paste’ work by passing it on as their PhD thesis in the near future. The University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to make it mandatory for all colleges and universities to instal a software that would easily detect plagiarism.
The proposed UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of MPhil/PhD Degrees) Regulations 2012 mandates that “the Academic Council of the institution (or its equivalent body) shall evolve a mechanism to detect plagiarism using well developed software and gadgets that can detect academic theft and the facilities made available by UGC - INFLIBNET.”
According to former University of Madras Vice Chancellor S P Thyagarajan, who is author of the new UGC Regulations, the UGC’s Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) in Ahmedabad has global software such as “Turnitin” which can detect plagiarism at the click of the mouse.
“This software can be used by all colleges and universities to check for academic theft,” he said.
As per the proposed regulations, even at the time of submitting a dissertation/thesis for evaluation by the PhD scholars, the research supervisor must attest “to the originality of the work, vouchsafing that there is no plagiarism and that the work has not been submitted for the award of any other degree/diploma of the same institution where the work was carried out, or to any other institution.”
To prevent misuse of a thesis, the Thyagarajan Committee has also recommended that a soft copy of the approved dissertation/thesis of a research scholar must be hosted in the website of the respective institution.
Besides, the institution must submit a soft copy of the MPhil dissertation and PhD thesis to the UGC within 30 days for hosting the same in the digital repository maintained by INFLIBNET.
As part of maintaining standards and quality, the proposed UGC Regulations also prohibits “lending of names” by external research supervisors (guides) to candidates who register for MPhil/PhD in distance education institutions or open universities. However, they can act as co-supervisors.
“There shall not be any kind of franchise arrangement, including through Study Centres/Counselling Centres, for admissions, distribution of study material, library and laboratory facilities, collection of fees, conduct of examinations, etc,” the Regulations state.
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