Ideas spring forth from the mind, inspiring humanity to ever greater heights of thinking and material achievement. Ideas lead to inventions and innovations which revolutionise the way we live and the way we think.
Ideas are just like things. I have mine and you have yours. While it is a good idea to share ideas, boundaries must be established to ensure that one’s intellectual rights are protected. Plagiarism is a bane to the commerce of ideas. This is not because ideas are meant to be kept to oneself, but because there are unscrupulous people around who have no sense of respect when it comes to borrowing ideas from others.
In order to generate new, more complex ideas, there is a necessity to utilise preexisting ideas. In academia, this is apparent when we work on our assignments, project papers, theses, and so on. However, in our mad rush for credits and credentials, there is a tendency to take the easy path of plagiarism.
TCX28 attempts to explore this issue from various angles - through interviews with our top people and academicians, through the opinions of tutors and learners, and through articles written by our editorial board members. Plagiarism is a thorny issue which blights the academic integrity of any institution; hence a concerted effort from all parties is required to effectively manage this menace.
It is our hope at TCX that some awareness may be raised about the seriousness of this matter among those concerned. Our tutors play an influential role in guiding our learners through the thickets and thistles of plagiarism. The first step is awareness. Our tutors need to create awareness in our learners about the moral and practical consequences of plagiarism. This will hopefully lead to a more honest, constructive approach in knowledge creation among our learners.
Here’s to a more responsible and ethical learning environment.