This present study seeks to explore the level of awareness and attitude towards plagiarism among higher education students in West Bengal, India. Academic integrity is faced with new challenges in light of the so-called ‘AI revolution’ and access to the internet. According to UGC 2026 statistics, despite all the existing global and national guidelines, the level of academic submissions that demonstrate high-level similarity in India is around 28%. Therefore, the purpose of this research is the investigation of the so-called “knowledge-practice gap”, when academic awareness about plagiarism cannot guarantee ethical behavior. The primary quantitative descriptive survey design was utilized in order to collect data from 109 graduate/postgraduate students from different educational streams (science/arts), districts (Nadia/Howrah). For the purpose of analysis, a validated 20 items Likert-scale survey, measuring the Awareness, Attitudes, Behavior and Motivation in relation to plagiarism, was used. Inferential techniques such as independent t-tests were also utilized during the process of data interpretation. It was found out that there are no statistically significant differences regarding age, gender, location, educational stream and the degree obtained in terms of level of academic integrity and awareness about plagiarism. The conclusion made is that software and other policies implemented in institutions on their own are not enough; at the same time, it is critical to switch from punishment techniques to instruction, which should emphasize proper referencing and academic integrity awareness.
Chattopadhyay et al. (Fri,) studied this question.