Government drafts anti-plagiarism law for academia

The government plans to bring in a law to stop rampant plagiarism in academia, with punishment ranging from a warning to deregistration in the case of students and dismissal from service for teachers, writes Neelam Pandey for the Hindustan Times.

Higher education regulator, the University Grants Commission or UGC, is finalising a draft law – the first of its kind – that is to be sent to the human resource development ministry for further action. Official sources said the government intends to seek parliamentary approval for the law this year.

The move comes in the wake of a raft of plagiarism charges against central university vice-chancellors and teachers in recent years. In the absence of a law, education institutions deal with cases of plagiarism individually. Last year, the UGC made it mandatory for all universities to use anti-plagiarism software to check PhD theses.
Full report on the Hindustan Times site