The raft of measures unveiled by the University Grants Commission to check plagiarism in research is an oblique admission of a distressing reality that many a thesis lacks originality. This in itself makes a mockery of the stress on research as the hallmark of a university’s excellence. This maxim can be open to question as it accords under-graduate and post-graduate studies a somewhat secondary rating. No university can excel without a robust under-graduate foundation. It is difficult to believe that the regulatory authority was not privy to the academic fiddle; nor for that matter can the research guide and those who conduct the Ph.D viva evade responsibility. No less suspect can be the candidate’s “justification” of his/her thesis at the viva. Clearly, the supervisory levels have either been ignorant or have tacitly condoned the gross irregularity. No campus has been identified, and it is hard not to wonder if the problem is endemic. The UGC has signalled its intent to “completely ban plagiarism in core thesis”… with a provision for what it calls “graded penalty”, notably denial of increment to the faculty. As a first step, the fellowship to the research student deserves to be scrapped. Work on the dissertation and the crafting thereof are pursued with public funds, which now works out to be a fair amount. If the search for learning verges on a criminal offence, the profound purpose of the endeavour is defeated at the highest level. Self-explanatory must be the title of the draft rules ~ “Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions 2017” ~ for it is an index to the canker that has permeated the system. As critical as the year, which points to prolonged indifference. Horribly belated has been the response of the academic circuit to the UGC rules, which have skirted the issue of fixing responsibility. It is cause for alarm if, as academics now admit, there is a “high rate of plagiarism in research papers”.

In effect, the authenticity of research has been considerably denuded. The UGC crackdown has knocked off the bottom of originality; the objective of a thesis stands defeated in the absence of what they call “plagiarism detection tools”. The dishonesty, at the level of research students and guides is overwhelming, and it is doubtful if the undertaking to be advanced by students is a foolproof arrangement. The research fellow will have to submit an undertaking saying that “the document has been prepared by the student, that it is his/her original work, and is free of plagiarism”. That statement of intent which ought to have been a given, will have to be certified by the research supervisor. For all that, detection of plagiarism is a different kettle of fish. The UGC’s new regulations do not taken care of the fundamental malaise. In general, the universities have cut a sorry figure and campuses abroad must be scoffing at the perceived advancement of learning in India.