Confusion at School of Politics

The School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy was thrown into turmoil recently over the submission of coursework via the Turnitin anti-plagiarism software system, as many students found themselves missing their submission deadlines due to a previously unheralded change in procedure.

The Turnitin software is designed to prevent students from plagiarising work and has been in use now by the School for a number of years. However, unnoticed by most students the procedure for correct submission was changed this year as students were required to hand in their coursework accompanied by a receipt obtained upon the uploading of the coursework onto the Turnitin system.

Despite the fact that no communications were sent to students to alert them to this change in School policy, the rule was strictly enforced and as a result many students found their coursework essays being rejected until they were accompanied by a receipt by which stage many had gone past their pre-existing deadlines. The situation become so dire that an email was sent round to students informing them of the need of a receipt, however many students failed to receive this email and the problem continued until a meeting of the Education Committee on the 18^th November agreed that students would no longer be required to have the submission receipt accompanying their work.

In response to the problems which were experienced, School Manager for the School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Conor O’Neill, stated that “I can confirm that in view of the recent uncertainty concerning this matter, with some students not being aware of the obligation to use Turnitin, that the School has agreed not to enforce this requirement for submission of coursework during this semester. It has also been agreed that there will be no penalty imposed on students who have submitted assignments after the deadline, due to not having a receipt.”

When questioned on whether it was an error not to inform students earlier of this change, the School stated simply that all the information about this change had been contained in the module guidelines which all students had access to and that this was sufficient.