An insight into the awareness, perception and attitude of Nigerian Students to plagiarism

This paper is about the pilot to a much larger study of student plagiarism in Nigerian Higher Education Institution (NHEI) which is an extension to the IPPHEAE (Impact of Plagiarism Policies in Higher Education across Europe) project. The IPPHEAE is a European wide study of thirty-two Higher Education Institutions (HEI) focusing on policies and procedures for the mitigation of plagiarism. The purpose of this pilot study is to test my methodology before undertaking the larger study. It explores the prior awareness, perceptions and attitude to plagiarism of some Nigerian students studying in Coventry University, United Kingdom. In this pilot study, group interview was organised and questionnaires disseminated to some Masters level study skills students. An analysis of the findings revealed prior levels of plagiarism awareness, several themes of perceptions and attitude to plagiarism. This pilot study reveals a need for more training on scholarly academic writing for Nigerian students who have come to study in the United Kingdom for the first time. This will help them understand the need to write and cite appropriately and acquire the relevant skills particularly in summarising and paraphrasing which will help them avoid plagiarism.