Hello Everyone,
I was born and bred in Pakistan and have done my schooling and college from there. In 2009, I moved to London and had an opportunity to do programming courses. It is only after studying in the UK that I have identified the substantial cultural difference and the significance of academic integrity.
Pakistan is still working its way towards consolidating the establishment of Intellectual property rights. It is deeply saddening to realize that Pakistan is known to be the top manufacturer and exporter of pirated industry software, publications, and digital content. The violations in the IPR Laws are persistent in Pakistan and have caused severe financial losses in the international trade market as well. As a former resident of Pakistan, I can safely say that most people don’t value the intellectual rights of others. A good example is the popularity of the cable TV system in Pakistan. It has been there for over two decades now. You get a £20 per month connection from the cable company and enjoy the 24/7 full access to 100 plus local and international channels on the TV. If you compare the same scenario of TV channel subscription in the UK, we must pay the high prices to enjoy these facilities. In the UK, if we want to see the new movie either we go to the cinema or wait for it to come on the TV or buy it online. Whereas, the cable providers in Pakistan play them on the TV as soon as the movie is released. So, the sense of responsibility of giving respect to owned content is absent in Pakistan. A sound educational system and good moral values are required to eradicate academic dishonesty in Pakistan.
USA based companies have suffered losses mounting up to even $1 billion per year due to the prevalence of piracy in Pakistan and therefore time, and again Pakistan has appeared on the priority watch list by the USTR. It is only recently that USTR has recognized the efforts that Pakistan made towards handling this issue by the introduction of new stringent laws. USTR (2016) stated in their report of last year that it is moving Pakistan from the Priority Watch List to the Watch List in 2016 with an OCR due to the Government of Pakistan’s significant efforts to implement key provisions of the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) Act of 2012 and the newfound determination with which Pakistan has approached IPR over the past 12 months.
At the higher levels of education, the issue of dishonesty in academics becomes significant as ethics and issues related to academic integrity is not taught. Plagiarism exists because as a student we don’t know what plagiarism is, how to identify and avoid it? Academic writing is not being taught accurately in Pakistan, and that is why the acknowledgment of someone else’s work is not considered to be a major issue. Cheating in exams and copying assignments is the norm in our society as there is no uniformity in awarding of punishments and people often make use of personal connections and networking to get the academic advantage for their children. I have witnessed the dominance of dishonesty in the academics in Pakistan, and sadly it is only on the rise. This problem has deep roots as it starts from the primary education and paves its way to post-graduate levels. Comparing the school systems of Pakistan and the UK, it is sad for me to witness the wide gap when it comes to academic honesty and integrity. From a young age, as students, we were trained to retain and rephrase rather than to explore our imaginations, research and express our ideas. While doing my BS there, I strongly felt that by sharing ideas and discussions with my peers would negatively impact my course work as the fear that others might use it was dominant. The main reason for this concern is academic dishonesty. It’s a shame how we students in Pakistan hold back from making discussions and sharing ideas. I recall and compare the group assignments and projects I did in BS, and conclude it was not carried out as a group in its true essence. All of us team members used to work individually on our part, prepare an essay from our research and then just in a couple of sittings we just put it together and made it seem like one piece. And that is why it lacked the correct flow and our real-life experiences. I regret we never sat down on the table to discuss our ideas or researched material. The exchange of a productive dialogue is the essential element of academic writing and project. We should have been taught at that point to critically assess each other’s piece of work and how to promote a healthy argument. The essential elements of research-based writing were not emphasized and taught to us. Inpapermagazine(2013) identified some of the causes for the increasing trend of academic dishonesty are a weak education system, the classroom environment, pressure from teachers and parents, decline of ethical, social values, self-centered culture, and last but not the least, technological developments.
We cannot blame just one person for the entire culture of dishonesty in academics in Pakistan. Multiple people need to play an influential role. A good brought up with high ethical and moral values is where a child gets a head start. Then the educational institutions need to take the responsibility and build a strong sense of academic integrity in students by teaching, enforcing and executing stringent course policies. To facilitate academic and economic growth, Pakistan needs to ensure a strict execution of its IPR laws. Yusufzai (2016) stresses on this subject and highlights that Higher Education Commission has established Offices of Research, Innovation, and Commercialization in more than 40 universities to promote a research culture in the country. The number of the investigation papers registered in Pakistan in 2002 was 800 and reached 12000 in the last year.
Rahman and Waheed (2014) conducted an interesting survey in Pakistan on the perception of students about dishonesty that resulted in the following graph. They state that About 51% of the respondents having age from 21 to 35 years claimed that academic dishonesty had become the regular part of life whiles the 48% students perceived this as an ethically illegal activity. However, 47.5% students considered academic dishonesty as unethical but acceptable practice in the context of Pakistan and agreed upon that academic dishonesty is a bad habit. Despite these activities, students have also accepted the fact that they involve in such activities to save their social relationships.
I had only realized the importance of academic honesty and integrity in real sense when I moved to London and started studying here. This transition has been quite fruitful and enlightening for me. A big credit goes to the colleges and the universities here who thoroughly educate their students about plagiarism and have strict course policies. Students breaking these policies are punished is ensured by the college. I have not only gained knowledge about plagiarism but have also absorbed on how to avoid it by giving credit to other people’s work correctly. I feel I have progressed in academic writing as have learned how to make notes efficiently and wherever required, following the guidelines taught to me I cite and reference appropriately. The successful transition to the new academic culture of the UK has paved the way for to advance in my career and I would always ensure that I make use of reading and researching aptly by efficient note making. Research and reading are not the only elements required for academic writing. I have realized that discussions and sharing of ideas based on authentic evidence have opened my vision and I have gotten better at exploring my untouched thoughts by discussing with my peers. I have also picked up a great tip on relating my real-life experiences with the subject I am studying. At the master’s level education, today I appreciate the hard work involved in creating a quality piece of academic writing from scratch, which as a result creates an ethical and moral awareness and compulsion inside me to accredit other people’s hard work as well. I plan to succeed in academic writing by citing and referencing other’s ideas and work always.
I have first time used Turnitin tool and do appreciate that it will help me quoting, citing and referencing correctly and this way I can avoid plagiarism too by assessing the originality report created by this tool. Also, I have incorporated a good habit of revising and proofreading to make my work error free as far as possible.
References:
Inpapermagazine (2013) Cheating: Academic dishonesty in Pakistan. Available at: https://www.dawn.com/news/1023452 (Accessed: 7 April 2017)
Rehman, R. and Waheed, A. (2014) ‘Ethical Perception of University Students About Academic Dishonesty in Pakistan: Identification of Student’s Dishonest Acts’, The Qualitative Report, 19(7), pp. 1-13. Available at: http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol19/iss4/1/ (Accessed: 7 April 2017)
USTR (2016) The Special 301 Report. Available at: https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/USTR-2016-Special-301-Report.pdf (Accessed: 7 April 2017)
Yusufzai, A. (2016) Pakistan Needs to Protect IP Rights for Academic & Economic Growth. Available at: https://propakistani.pk/2015/11/23/pakistan-needs-to-protect-ip-rights-for-academic-economic-growth (Accessed: 7 April 2017)
