University of Madras makes move to check plagiarism (TOI - Engineering Colleges Tamil Nadu)

Speaking at an event organized by Quaid-e-Millath College for Women recently, G Thiruvasagam, vice-chancellor of University of Madras, said the varsity had been receiving several complaints about plagiarized research papers. "The board of studies and research committee has recommended the purchase of Turnitin software for `15 lakh. It is expected that the university senate will approve the purchase of the software on February 21."

Explaining how the software works, Thiruvasagam said, "Research papers submitted by scholars will be stored in a database. When a research paper or thesis is submitted, the software scans the database for content that may have been copied from a previous scholar's paper." Plagiarism has affected the quality of research papers, he said. In another significant development, the university has also decided to reserve 500 seats for poor students in self-financed courses offered by all the self-financed and aided colleges affiliated to the university from this academic year.

Students in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvalluvar districts are likely to benefit from this move. Around 76% of colleges under University of Madras are self-financed, but the fees in many of these colleges are comparitively high. Thiruvasagam said, "Self-financed colleges offer many advanced and job-oriented courses. But, it is not affordable for all students as the fee in these colleges are too high. So the university has decided to conduct a centralized admission procedure under Madras University Students Free Education Scheme from this academic year (2012-13)."

He said the university has been putting a lot of pressure on the self-financed college managements to provide affordable fees. "During previous academic years, after strict instructions from us some colleges have provided free admissions to self-financed courses. This year onwards, all the colleges have to reserve a minimum of five seats for the poor students," said Thiruvasagam. "The application form can be obtained from the university registrar.

The annual income of the family should not be more than `2 lakh. There are also special considerations for landless or homeless, differently-abled students among others. The candidate could mention the preferred college and the course and the university will select the candidate under the merit basis," he said. Students welcomed the university's decision to reserve seats in self-financed colleges.

Students Federation of India state president K S Kanakaraj, "Many colleges are charging huge fees, which are not affordable for the poor people. The decision to implement reservation in at least five seats in the self-financed colleges is therefore welcomed."