Music students' attitudes towards plagiarism / Marina Malek Albakri

Plagiarism is a serious offense that most people take lightly especially students. One question that keep running in educator's mind is whether students do it intentionally or unintentionally, or whether students know what plagiarism means. This research tries to probe students' knowledge on plagiarism, their perceptions towards plagiarism and also to understand the factors that drive them to plagiarize. Sample for this study were 61 music degree students at the Faculty of Music, UiTM. Questionnaires were distributed to students and consisted of questions which sought to investigate students' knowledge and perception of plagiarism. The questionnaire also consists of questions which investigate the factors that drive students to plagiarize. Findings indicate that most students have heard about plagiarism but only a few who knows its exact definition. It also showed that most students do not take plagiarism as a serious matter and tend to take it lightly. There were hardly any significant differences found between programs and the factors that drive students to plagiarize, but there were many significant differences between gender. Overall, it shows that students need to be exposed more on the topic of plagiarism as they seemed unclear about the correct way to write when they borrow ideas from other sources.