Master’s students’ perception of plagiarism during research writing in the faculty of education

This study was on master’s students’ perception of plagiarism during research writing in the faculty of education. This study answered and tested four research questions and six hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. The study used Imo State University (IMSU) and the University of Port Harcourt (UPH). A descriptive survey design, a population of 276 master students, and a sample size of 95 students were selected with a stratified random sampling technique. The instrument was a 37-item questionnaire on ethical issues and plagiarism in the faculty of education with a reliability index of 0.85. Data was analyzed using mean, standard deviation, percentage, and t-tests in the statistical package for social sciences. The findings showed that master’s students in the faculty of education at IMSU and UPH have positive perceptions of the ethical rules governing people’s work usage during thesis writing; the perception differed significantly based on gender but was insignificant on the institutional basis. The awareness level of plagiarism consequences was high, irrespective of gender and institution. The male and female students in the faculty of education of both universities can paraphrase referenced materials themselves without paying someone for it and use online paraphrasing tools to rewrite referenced materials in their theses. The findings mean that female students are prone to plagiarism than male students. The recommendation, among others, was that postgraduate lecturers emphasize the need for male and female students to adhere strictly to the ethical standards governing authors’ intellectual property usage.