Plagiarism

I didn't know you could get away with it in University. Also, I changed the names of the professors in order to protect their privacy.

Unpunished Crimes

Bangkok – Theft, a crime anywhere. Not in university.

Chulalongkorn University has a strict policy on plagiarism, which if enforced, will result in an F for students. Students still choose to do it because they believe they will not get caught.

“They think they can get away with it” said John Paul, a current lecturer at Chulalongkorn University. “I can’t imagine they do it thinking they have a good percent chance of getting caught. I can’t imagine that, they can't be that stupid.”

Many teachers know when plagiarism happens. “I can tell that when you do assignments in class and then I see your assignments from out of class,” Paul said. Though the act of plagiarism is tossed aside, which is an underlying reason for why students still persist on doing it. “I don’t know if I’d say most, but I know they let it slide sometimes.”

The teachers cannot be the only ones to blame for this issue. Chulalongkorn is also responsible for letting plagiarism go.

“Problem at Chula is they don’t like you to give students F’s and the administration always tries to fight you on it,” said an anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University. “I don’t really understand the thinking. They want to catch the student but then they want you to let the student go.”

There is a defense for the reason many students in Thailand plagiarize. It all leads back to how they were taught in their schools growing up.

“Thai school students are taught to copy the teacher, copy each other’s work, make sure it’s exactly the same, so it’s a culture,” said an anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University. “So plagiarism is a product of people who can’t critically think.”

It has become something more or less accepted as part of Thai culture.

Ron Basset, a full time professor at Chulalongkorn University, stated, “basically students don't care much about academic honesty and they don't find it shameful or disgraceful to plagiarize other people’s work so it's on a cultural level.”

Not only is it considered a cultural thing, it’s also the fact that they don’t care.

“Some student don't really care about the process and the knowledge and the skills,” said Basset. “All they care is about getting good grades and passing.”

There will always be students who don’t even consider the consequences. Students deserve a warning before teachers take action, but some students won’t take heed to the warning and continue to do what they want and eventually lead them down into an F.

“I had a student who kept doing it even though I warned him not to,” said an anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University. “I’ve had it happen more than once.”

Some students have become creative and chosen a different path in getting work done with ease. Pay.

An anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University said he knew students who hired other students to write their work for them and paid them the money to do so.

“I wouldn’t call it theft,” said Paul. “You’re kinda corrupting the system… a lot of people put a lot of effort into the study. That’s just sick.”

Plagiarism is a crime. “It can enter into the realm of intellectual property theft.” An anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University said. But in Thai universities it tends to be overlooked and will most likely remain this way.

An anonymous teacher at Chulalongkorn University said it has to do with the image of the university. That if many students fail for plagiarism, then it shows that the students aren’t as good as they are seen to be.

However, if it ever gets out, “it hurts the institution,” Paul said.