KARACHI, Sept 11: While the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has introduced software called Ithenticate to detect plagiarism in PhD and MPhil theses, the fact that few people know how it works casts some doubts on its effectiveness. The programme is further limited by its inability to trace works published in any language other than English.

The software was deemed necessary after some professors of the University of the Punjab were found to have had plagiarised from foreign scholars’ research papers.

According to HEC chairman Dr Attaur Rehman, all universities were notified once the plagiarism policy was approved. “Some prominent universities, including Karachi University (KU), have been given the software. This will ensure that submitted dissertations are original work,” he told Dawn.

He added that in case a university ignores the HEC notification, funding will be suspended and “sufficient action” will be taken against the teacher/supervisor. PhD dissertations submitted during or before 2007 will be run through Ithenticate and will be accepted if found to be original work, and the HEC intends to later expand the software’s scope to the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Asked about the software’s English-only limitation, Dr Rehman could provide no substantial solution.

However, a source in KU said that no software has as such been given to the university. “There is a website where we have been told we can access it but the password supplied does not work,” said the source. “Over 300 PhD theses are to be submitted at KU this year so it’s very important that the software become functional, otherwise a lot of time will be wasted.” He claimed that the so-called training session in the use of the software lasted no more than ten minutes.

Nevertheless, the KU vice chancellor, Dr Pirzada Qasim, expressed optimism about the new system. “There was no check on plagiarists earlier but they can now be easily caught,” he said, “people will no longer be able to take the easy way out.” A KU professor told Dawn that plagiarism is a common problem, particularly in the humanities.