PLAGIARISM IN SAUDI ARABIAN PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION: REASONS AND SOLUTIONS

Plagiarism is one of the critical problems that Arab universities encounter. This study was conducted to mainly highlight: 1) the possible reasons behind students’ academic plagiarism; 2) the benefits of plagiarism workshops; and 3) students’ judgment of the artistic and organisational sides of the workshop. The sample constituted of 196 female students in a Saudi Arabian public university. All the students were in their third year at college. The sample involved students from two departments: Preschool department (67%); and Quranic Studies department (33%). A survey consisting twenty-five items was administered after being validated for its use. The results have shown that students are plagiarising because of the heavy project loads and that their teachers do not check for plagiarism. In addition, students do not have sufficient knowledge about how to avoid plagiarism. The participants indicated that a well-organised training workshop would help them to know all about plagiarism. Therefore it can be suggested that colleges and universities need to train students on academic honesty because it is all about prevention rather than punishment.