PLAGIARISM ISSUES AMONG UNDERGRADUATES: A KAZAKHSTANI PERSPECTIVE

Plagiarism among students has always been a problem in higher education. It turned to a large-scale problem with the advent of technology and an easy access to a massive data of information on the internet. The shift to online learning made the situation even worse. The university faculty and management are trying to address this issue by introducing a strong policy and technology to increase the fairness and quality of the educational process. It is necessary to consider all the factors that exacerbate the situation with plagiarism among students. The problem of plagiarism among Kazakhstani students is little studied, especially during the transition to online learning. This prompted us to study the problem in higher educational institutions from Kazakhstani perspective. A survey was conducted to find out students’ understanding of plagiarism, its avoidance, causes and reasons, as well as students’ suggestions to overcome the problems of plagiarism in one of the higher education institutions in Kazakhstan. Data were collected through a structured survey from 161 undergraduate students of IT-related specialities in Astana IT University (AITU) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The questionnaire consists of 22 questions, including 19 closed and 3 open-ended questions, divided into five parts. Despite the fact that students are aware of the academic integrity policy of the university and introduced with the plagiarism avoidance methods, the results of the descriptive and cross-sectional analysis show that they have poor knowledge on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, therefore they cannot apply their knowledge in practice properly. Students’ reasons for committing plagiarism were categorized into two, individual and institutional. The individual reasons prevail institutional ones. Additionally, survey results discuss recommendations to solve the problems of plagiarism in AITU.