Text 5 Есть мнение

Высшее образование у нас уже платное. Кто не отдал за поступление взятку или не платит за обучение впрямую, тот обязательно протяги­вал конвертики репетиторам или ходил на подготовительные курсы. При этом люди по-прежнему не ценят получаемого ими образования. И поэтому студенты пропускают лекции и прогуливают семинары, не задумываясь о том, что их обучение стоит денег. Оплата идет из го­родского или государственного бюджетов. Нужные в других сферах средства разбазариваются: один студент уезжает с новым дипломом за границу, другой работает по специальности. Поэтому все образова­ние, осуществляемое по госзаказу, должно быть платным. Можно разра­ботать различные формы оплаты. Причем бумажник родителей — не единственный источник средств (на Западе многие к нему и не прика­саются). Например, действенна система фантов (государство выделя­ет определенные средства на обучение каждому студенту) или креди­тов (студент учится за счет фирмы, сотрудником которой становится на оговоренный в контракте срок). Форм много, главное — готов­ность их предложить. И законодательно поддержать. А то ведь поче­му юноши-москвичи рвутся после школы хоть в какой-нибудь вуз? Потому что могут загреметь в армию. Выбирают профессию, от кото­рой потом всю жизнь страдают... («АиФ-Москва»)

Text 6 Rooting out student cheats

Universities are today being urged to take the growing menace of plagia­rism by students more seriously. Cheats are a minority, but their actions an­ger and discourage other students and devalue the status of British qualifi­cations, says a report going out to UK universities and higher education colleges.

The guidelines, called Deterring, Detecting and Dealing with Student Plagiarism, published online by the universities’ joint information systems committee (JISC), say universities need to nominate specific members of staff to deal with cases of plagiarism, but that the whole institution, from the vice-chancellor downwards, must coordinate policy to deal with a prob­lem that has grown with the spread of the internet.

The report notes that an increasing number of UK institutions have specialist officers located within the school or department who deal with all cases of plagiarism. Markers who detect unacceptable behaviour pass the case to the specialist who decides whether plagiarism is demonstrated and allocates a punishment from a limited range of options. Oxford Brookes University, where the system has been in place for five years, has 14 “aca­demic conduct officers” and Sheffield Hallam has a panel of specialist officers.

The majority of plagiarism cases occur when students misunderstand or misuse academic conventions and attribution rules, but it is the deliber­ate cheats who cause the most concern, argues the guidelines document. “Students who deliberately cheat or engage in fraudulent behaviour are characterised as threatening the values and beliefs that underpin academic work, angering and discouraging other students who do not use such tac­tics, devaluing the integrity of UK awards and qualifications, and dis­torting the efforts of lecturers who wish to teach rather than police oth­ers’ actions.”

Increasing pressures on students arising from undertaking paid work, heavier coursework load, or lack of personal organisation skills are con­tributing to the rise of plagiarism, argues the document.

It notes that concerns have been raised about “top-up” final-year pro­grammes in which international students do the first two years in their home country and then finish the degree in the UK. The scheme meant students were often submitting a dissertation after eight months of UK study.

“Others worry it is more frequent in distance-learning programmes where authorship of coursework cannot be easily authenticated. It may be more common in veiy large classes. If these students enter programmes where the ‘rules of the game’ are unclear, they might continue to use tried and tested approaches and thereby, inadvertently, plagiarise,” says the re­port, adding that the number of students falling into this category will grow as student cohorts become more diverse due to widening participa­tion, increasing numbers of international students and greater use of dif­ferent teaching modes (eg distance learning, work-based learning). (The Guardian, by Donald MacLeod)