Federal universities have partnered with a United Kingdom Information Technology firm for the deployment of plagiarism detection software in all federal universities.

The Head of Mass Communication Department, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State, on Thursday lauded the move by the Committee of Vice Chancellors (CVC) of Nigerian universities to intensify the fight against plagiarism.

Mr. Duyile spoke in a telephone interview in Lagos.

The CVC has entered into partnership with a United Kingdom Information Technology firm for the deployment of plagiarism detection software in all federal universities.

Mr. Duyile said that the issue of plagiarism was a threat to the development of education in the universities and the move by the CVC was in the right direction.

“When a work is being plagiarised, it does not give credit to the original owner of the work. Nigeria as a country also partners international bodies to control corruption; so, the CVC’s action is a good development,” he said.

Ademola Onifade, Director, Centre for Environment and Science Education, Lagos State University, also welcomed the move.

He said that everyone in the education sector was working hard to tackle the fraudulent practice, which he believed was not too enormous for quality assurance departments of universities to handle.

The professor said the quality assurance departments in the universities should, however, be strengthened further. He noted that it was good to send the paper work of lecturers to experts to screen them to ensure they were free of plagiarism.

Also, Sule Sheidu of the Department of Educational Administration, University of Lagos, said that it was a right thing to check plagiarism in the university circle.

“Each university should have its own quality assurance committee to handle the issue of plagiarism. Any submitted work, either in the form of thesis or academic report that had been fraudulently copied from any already published works in other climes would be isolated and exposed,” he said.

(NAN)