Why many international students get a failing grade in academic integrity

September 2, 2011
By JAMES BRADSHAW and TAMARA BALUJA
From Saturday's Globe and Mail

As Canadian schools try harder to attract students from abroad, many that get here struggle with stress
and new educational standards
.
University students break the rules for a host
of reasons - some make a bad decision under
pressure at 3am; others insist they were just helping
a classmate. But at some Canadian schools, an
alarming number of the accused share one
characteristic: they came from abroad to study here.
The disproportionate number of
international students accused of plagiarism or
cheating on exams is raising red flags in university
administrations and legal aid offices. It also raises
questions as to whether schools should be doing
more for stressed-out foreign students who are
grappling with new educational standards, often
while coping with a language barrier.
With governments and universities across
Canada increasing their efforts to recruit more
students from abroad, and some opening branch
campuses abroad, there is a growing desire to
understand why so many new arrivals are getting a
failing grade in academic integrity. Most Canadian
universities do not track academic offences by a
student's country of origin, which makes definitive
measures of the problem difficult. But those on the
front lines of the universities' support services and
legal aid clinics are certain that a significantly higher
proportion of international students are getting in
trouble.
The imbalance is striking at Downtown
Legal Services, the University of Toronto legal aid
clinic that assists students charged with academic
offences, said staff lawyer Karen Bellinger. "I would
say, anecdotally, that well over 50 per cent of
[clients] are international students," she said. This
group makes up about 12 per cent of the total student
body at the Univerity of Toronto.
After perceiving a similar trend, the
University of Windsor began keeping track three
years ago. A 2008-2009 report from Academic
Integrity Officer Danielle Istl shows one in 82
international students was accused of academic
misconduct, compared with one in 300 domestic
students. Both numbers decreased the next year, but
the percentage of international students accused was
still more than three times higher.
International students facing discipline most
commonly say they were used to drastically different
learning styles, burdened with expectations from
families that have invested heavily in them, or
lacked the confidence to shape and convey ideas in
English. Some cheat for the same reasons as anyone
- a lack of understanding or attention to what is
allowed, especially in grey areas like group work, or
a desire to boost bad marks - but schools
increasingly realize cultural barriers can put them at
greater risk of academic dishonesty, intentional or
not.
Karan, who did not want his last name
published, is a recent international graduate of the
University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts and Science
and admits he was let off with a warning over
apparent plagiarism after copying text from lecture
slides word-for-word in a paper. In India, he had
relied on reproducing the words of his teachers and
rote-learning to succeed in India and was taken
aback by the emphasis placed on critical analysis
and proper citation of sources in Canada.
"Basically [the professor] said I didn't cite at
all," said Karan. "Back home, we listen to our
teachers and basically repeat everything they say.
The more you write your answers exactly the way
they say it, the better chance you have of getting an
A."

ESL 202 (Unit 1) 1 H. Neumann

 Then there's the weight of expectations
carried by many students who have crossed
continents and oceans to study, paying high
international fees. "I think most students don't plan
on cheating ... it just happens," Karan said. "Often
times, parents back home will be spending a lot of
money to send you abroad, and the hope is that with
this Canadian degree, you will get a better job back
home or sponsor your parents to move."
A 2006 study published by the Higher
Education Academy in the U.K. found that more
than 60 per cent of the international students
surveyed, particularly those from some Asian
countries, believed that failure to use the same
wording as a teacher or "authority figure" in an
assignment would be the same as criticizing them. It
found these students are not "persistent plagiarizers"
but suggested it was easier to detect plagiarism in
their work than in the work of native English
speakers.
Most universities consider any presentation
of another person's words or ideas as one's own
without crediting the original source to be
plagiarism.
After arriving at the University of Toronto
from Taiwan, Hannah Liu found she and her friends
often felt they lacked the vocabulary and writing
skills to be confident paraphrasing research material.
"If [students] don't know how to rewrite the
sentence, they probably think, 'I'll just copy and
paste it,'" she said. Niraj Maharaj encounters this
explanation often in his role as Student Rights and
Support Services Co-ordinator at the York
Federation of Students despite York University's
mandatory English proficiency test for students
educated in another language. "A number of students
have mentioned that the test doesn't really register
what a university-level essay would look like,"
focusing instead on basic grammar and sentence
structure, Mr. Maharaj said.
Virtually all universities have writing
tutorial services, but they tend to be voluntary, and
many students don't take advantage of them until
they run into trouble. "The services can be there, but
some people don't have the courage [to ask for help],
or it could be an issue of pride," said Kevin
Williams, a Carleton University student from St.
Lucia who sought tutoring when his first paper was
deemed "on the borderline" of academic honesty.
ESL 202 (Unit 1)
McGill University's Legal Information
Clinic is drafting a report for the university
administration. At the University of Toronto, Ms.
Bellinger said she has raised the alarming numbers
with the Governing Council, and its Anti-Racism
and Cultural Diversity Office is also aware. But a
University of Toronto spokesperson said, "to the best
of our knowledge" Downtown Legal Services has
not referred the issue to either body, and the
university does not plan to track academic offences
by country of origin. Instead, it has initiatives
intended to guide all students - from embedding
advisers in colleges to holding workshops to train
faculty and instructors. Still, Ms. Bellinger feels
most students' training "isn't that extensive."
Many schools, such as Windsor, have special
orientation for international students, but there is a
growing push to extend informational programs later
into the first term, when students are less "caught up
in getting their lives in order," said Rose Faddoul,
counsel at the University of Windsor's Community
Legal Aid.
And Windsor may also copy a measure other
schools like Concordia University already use: a
short, online academic integrity quiz every student
takes when registering for courses. "There's lots we
can do," Ms. Istl said. "The challenge, though, is
time and resources."
Source: Adapted from
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/universityne
ws/why-many-international-students-get-a-failing-grade-in-academic-
integrity/article2152899/
2 H. Neumann