By Iylia Marsya Iskandar
Actions have consequences. It is important for students to deeply understand the true meaning of integrity and honesty that will have bearing on their future career upon graduating.
As human beings walking under the sun, there are always rules and regulations that you have to follow, regardless if you are an IIUM student or not.
In the Communication Academic Briefing session with new intake of students held online via Google Meet, last Wednesday (7 October), Communication lecturer, Dr. Nerawi Sedu gave a pep talk on “Understanding Ethics and Rules and Regulations” to remind them of their roles and responsibilities as undergraduates who have just set foot at the university.
He said: “Train yourself to be as honest as possible. It is not easy to be an honest person, it takes a little bit of practice.”
Facing the current COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia that has forced IIUM to adopt the remote teaching and learning (RTL) mode for the first few weeks, students are expected by lecturers to be honest, attend and focus in online lectures.
In physical classes, students are obligated to fulfil 80% of their attendance. If students missed three classes for a three-credit hour course, students will be given a warning letter and if they missed more than that, students will be getting a barring letter.
Regardless of whether lecturers and students have face-to-face interactions or not throughout the semester, examinations will still be conducted.
The academic world holds plagiarism as a serious offence. This is reflected in IIUM legal documents where there are several rules in regards to academic dishonesty specifically on plagiarism.
8(2)(a) The act of taking any idea, or intellectual property expressed in material form, writing, data or invention of another person and claiming that the idea, writing, data or invention is the result of one’s own finding or invention
Students’ Discipline Rules 2004
8(2)(b) An act to make out or making out, in such a way that one is the original source or the author of an idea expressed in material form, writing, data or invention which has actually been taken from another source
Students’ Discipline Rules 2004
8(3)(d) A student plagiarises when he: Extract academic data which are the result of research undertaken by some other person, such as laboratory findings or field work findings, or data obtained through library research, whether published or unpublished, and incorporate those data as part of his academic research
Students’ Discipline Rules 2004
Dr. Nerawi elaborated, “Students are allowed to quote, but please do it correctly – credit the original author.”
“Taking someone else’s intellectual property and claim to be yours is plagiarism.
Your answer scripts or assignments will be run through turnitin, if it is more than 25%, you will be getting zero directly.”
Dr. Nerawi also pointed out that plagiarism rules are not only applicable to students but to lecturers as well. Not only that, in the professional world, journalists are expected to not plagiarise other journalists’ news articles. They can face action of being terminated if they do so.
Furthermore, based on the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) code of conduct, as members they are expected to abide by professional principles including avoiding plagiarism.
This shows that honesty and integrity do not stop when students leave IIUM, but they will be carried out or applied throughout your life.
“It comes down to the students, whether they want to be an honest or a dishonest student. It is your decision as a student and as a Muslim,” Dr. Nerawi shared.
As Communication students, they have also to conduct their own Final Year Project which involves data collection. Failing the Final Year Project will result in inability to graduate.
Dr. Nerawi pointed out that the Final Year Project reflects on the honesty of the students to conduct research on their own.
“You have to know why you are in the university to begin with, if it’s for a degree, you will still obtain a degree regardless in the haram or halal way, but if you say knowledge, then there is a thing known as blessed knowledge. It is up to the students to ponder and decide.
Regardless, students will have to bear the consequences either if it’s ten years or four years from now,” Dr. Nerawi said.
“However, academic achievement alone does not necessarily reflect on the honesty of the students. Students can graduate with a 3.5 pointer while earning their degree dishonestly.”
The goal of IIUM is to produce honest journalists and producers, therefore there is a consequence for plagiarism and cheating. Depending on the seriousness of the offence, the consequence for plagiarism is suspension for a year.
With regards to cheating in examinations, the IIUM legal documents have defined cheating to be inclusive of:
13(b)(x): Submitting work prepared in whole part or part by another person and representing that work as one’s own
Student Academic Performance Evaluation (Undergraduate) Regulations 2015
13(b)(xi) Submitting the work one has done for one class or project to a second class, or a second project, without the prior informed consent of the relevant instructors
Student Academic Performance Evaluation (Undergraduate) Regulations 2015
Dr. Nerawi said, “To kill two birds in one stone, students often use one assignment for a few courses.”
13(b)(xv) Failure to contribute in a group fairly to a group assignment/group work where the person is a member of the group and the workload is to be shared equally
Student Academic Performance Evaluation (Undergraduate) Regulations 2015
“When you have group work, you really have to contribute your efforts.” Relating to his personal experience, Dr. Nerawi said that he has seen students shouting at each other and quarrelling due to sleeping group-mates.
Some students prefer not to take matters into their own hands but report to their lecturer instead. Therefore, if a student does not do his due, they lose the ability to complain if they obtain low marks.
“Frankly speaking, I believe everyone wants to share their first salary with their parents four years from now. If you earn your degree in a haram way, you would know the status of your salary. Put that in mind if you come here to really help your parents, then you have to start doing everything honestly,” he added.
“Your status as a Muslim is more significant than your status as a student. It is up to you if you want to obtain your degree in the halal way or the haram way. In Islam, there is freedom.
Freedom in this context is you are free to decide which path you are going to take. You can decide what you want to do and shape your life, if it is halal you can proceed, if the thing is haram you should refrain yourself.” he added.
Dr. Nerawi emphasised that no one is going to be in IIUM forever so students have to plan ahead and shape who they want to be four years from now when they are going out into the real world to join the industry.
CAB was attended by some 50 new intake of Communication students which saw the presence of lecturers from the Department of Communication at the briefing as well. ***