Students from higher education institutions towards institutional and classroom policies on plagiarism

INTRODUCTION. The phenomenon of plagiarism is becoming an issue of increasing interest in the university context. However, the studies that have focused on this topic from the students' perception regarding the institutional and classroom policies are scarce. Thus, this paper aims to analyse the perception of the students from the Faculties of Educational Sciences in the Galician University System on plagiarism, in relation to the ethical regulation and to the teachers' reactions in the classroom. METHOD. A cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational and inferential quantitative study was conducted. A sample of 2,331 university students were given a questionnaire on attributions to detect coincidences in academic work. RESULTS. The data shows that these students, in general, value the causes that motivate them to commit plagiarism in a negative way, yet the teachers' reaction is considered slightly positive. Also results report statistically significant correlations among several items, as well as a tendency to value negatively the causes and teachers' reaction as they advance in their courses, which means valuating the teachers' information about plagiarism much more than the merely informative and penalizing rules at the first levels, and viceversa. DISCUSSION. The results are discussed taking into consideration the previous studies as well as in relation to the existence of regulations in the three Galician universities; establishing conclusions that result in the improvement of the measures to be taken into account and applied in order to avoid plagiarism in the university classrooms.