In their own words: a qualitative study of the reasons Australian university students plagiarize

Abstract The ways in which universities and individual academics attempt to deter and respond to student plagiarism may be based on untested assumptions about particular or primary reasons for this behaviour. Using a series of group interviews, this qualitative study gathered the views of 56 Australian university students on the possible reasons for plagiarism within their institution. The results indicate a wide and disparate range of possible contributing reasons for plagiarism, including: institutional admission criteria; student understanding of plagiarism; poor academic skills; a range of teaching and learning factors; personality factors; and external pressures. These findings are compared with other findings about reasons for student plagiarism in Australasia. The implications of these findings are considered for universities and individual academics seeking to better engage with their students to minimize or marginalize plagiarism. Keywords: PlagiarismQualitative researchReasonsStudent experienceStudent voice Acknowledgement The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for pointing out published accounts of other Australasian research projects that were under‐way at the time this paper was first written: the final version of this paper has benefited from our reflection on these. Notes 1. 'School' here refers to what would usually be termed a Faculty in an Australian university. The university has restructured since this study was conducted and Schools have now been collapsed into Faculties. 2. VCE is the Victorian Certificate of Education, the final‐year high school qualification in the state of Victoria, Australia. 3. CATs are Common Assessment Tasks, undertaken by Year 12 (final‐year) students in Victorian schools for the purpose of summative assessment.