The University of West of England (UWE) has recently identified more than 300 cases of plagiarism in the last year.

The number only represents 1% of the entire student body at UWE, however it shows a increasing trend for cases of plagiarism being reported. Questions have been asked if this shows an increase or better detection.

Reports show internet-based essay writing and assistance companies offering “No Plagiarism guarantees” are springing up all over the place, with Pugwash News being approached to promote them.

Universities however are looking to the internet and technology to combat the problem; many universities submit work through plagiarism detection software which can detect copied or unreferenced work.

This however struggles to detect when students hire academics or graduates to custom write work for them. In these cases lecturers claim that interaction and working alongside students is the best method of combating this.

Universities are not the only organisations facing increased problems of plagiarism, many academic journals including the British Medical Journal are increasing wary of non-orignal work being submitted according to the Times Higher Education Supplement.

The THES outlines plans by various journals to use similar software to that used by universities to catch out article copying.

The University of Portsmouth policy on plagiarism in its extremes it can lead to expulsion from your course, so is it such a good investment?